SeaQuest DSV: The Ethics Of Intentions
by Immortalkaos80
Summary: Lucas Wolenczak lands in the clutches of scientist Dr. Ryan Sanborn, bent on destroying crime, war, even natural disaster at any cost. Now Lucas and the crew of the seaQuest must stop him. But will they make it in time? Please read and review.
1. Author's Note

**Author's Note**

This story is set at the end of season two, before the season finale "Splashdown" and after "Blindsided". Not to knock anyone who loved the third season, but for me that was when the series jumped the shark. So I've chosen to pretend the third season never happened. The seaQuest didn't go gallivanting off to some far away planet in this time line.

Please note that I am continuing with the season two crew and disregarding the cast from season three. Captain Hudson never led this seaQuest.

There is a fanfic trailer for this story if anyone is interested in viewing it. You may do so via my profile. The link is provided there.


	2. Acknowledgements

**Acknowledgments**

I'd like to thank my editor but I don't have one at the moment. So this is the holding spot if I get one.

I'd also like to thank my mom for taking the time to read my diatribe and give me her thoughts on it. Yes, she liked _seaQuest DSV_ but she can't understand my obsession with fan fiction. She still read it. Thank you.

Third, I'd like to thank Steven Spielberg ,Rockne S. O'Bannon, and the entire cast and crew of _seaQuest DSV_ for giving us this world to begin with it. Thanks for letting me drive your boat, even if you don't know I hijacked it for a little while!

Last but not least, I'd like to thank Jonathan Brandis for playing a character I love so much. For giving him a voice that I can say with certainty, no one else could have. No, you weren't Lucas Wolenczak but you gave him his heart and soul.


	3. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_New Cape Quest, Florida_

_June 29, 2022_

_23:00_

It was a gorgeous night on the beach, the moon shone on the water turning it into a rippling silver sheet. Lucas Wolenczak was sitting with Seaman Anthony Piccolo at a little seaside restaurant, eating burgers and fries on the open air dining deck adjacent to the main building. The night was lost on him though...Piccolo had just found a new victim.

Lucas wondered why exactly he had agreed to take shore leave with him in the first place. He rolled his eyes and thought if he heard one more lame pick up line come out Anthony Piccolo's mouth his brain might short circuit. Tony had been making his way steadily through every female that looked like they might be of a legal age since they had come into the restaurant.

"Did it hurt?" Tony asked a passing waitress. Lucas buried his head in his hands to hide the exasperation, dark blonde hair falling through his fingers in messy tendrils . The waitress stopped, she must have been new, Tony had tried that line on every woman here at least once every time they came here.

"Did what hurt?" She asked balancing a tray full of empty glasses.

"Here it comes," Lucas muttered under his breath.

"When you fell from Heaven," he told the woman. She cocked one hip out and laughed, shaking her dark head of hair. She turned and walked away without a word.

"Hey, come on. Can't a guy flirt with a pretty girl?" Tony called after her.

"Tony, your problem is you don't know how to really engage a girl's interest," Lucas told him.

"Oh and you do genius?" Tony shot back, his eyebrows fighting for space with his hairline. Lucas gave him an arrogant grin and leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head.

"Yeah I do actually," he bragged.

"Oh and you speak with the voice of experience? This I gotta see. Go ahead," Tony challenged.

Lucas' bravado got the better of him. "Alright," he said, scanning the open air dining deck for a likely target. He found one, a pretty red haired girl , trying to get the battery pack into a new music player. He knew it was new; the packaging was strewn all over the table. He got up, ran his hand through his hair and briefly checked his reflection in the mirror behind the bar. Tony sat at the table and watched, arms crossed over his chest. Lucas walked up behind the girl and peered over her shoulder.

"You know it works better if you turn it around," he suggested. The girl started, she hadn't noticed him come up she was so intent on getting the music player to operate.

"Here let me," he added carefully taking the player and the battery pack from her hands.

"Oh thank you," she said in a shy voice.

He flipped over the battery pack, slid it in with a click and held up the dangling ear phones for her.

"There you go. Try that," he said, flashing his most charming smile at her. She took them and slipped one in her ear, sure enough music was blaring along from it.

"Thanks, I've been fighting with that thing for fifteen minutes," she said "I'm Jennifer. And you are?" She asked flipping her hair back over her shoulders.

"Lucas, Lucas Wolenczak." he grinned at her.

"Nice to meet you Lucas," she told him. Tony was sitting at their table his mouth half open, surely there was no way Lucas could possibly be beating him with the women. Lucas was still making head way with Jennifer.

"My friend and I, we're here on shore leave from the _seaQuest,_" he explained dropping the boat's name for effect. His blue eyes searched her face for any sign of recognition, but there was none. "I was wondering if you might like to..." he started as a very large, very mean looking man walked up behind Jennifer. He crossed his arms and looked perturbed.

"You were wondering if she'd like to what?" he spat. Lucas looked everywhere but at the burly man, trying to come up with a way out.

"I, uh, I was just wondering, uh..." he was floundering for some excuse. The man looked like he could rip off all his appendages and still have energy left to bench press a sea launch.

"Billy, he was just helping with the music player you got me. That's all." Jennifer tried to placate the muscle bound behemoth; the problem was he didn't look like he wanted to be placated. He looked like he wanted to turn Lucas into origami. Tony interceded before Lucas could end up on the wrong end of a right hook.

"He was just wondering if she'd like to try today's special, but ya know what? We're fresh out so we'll just be leaving," he told the man hastily and hauled Lucas off by the arm before the man had a chance to decide to deck him.

"Engage a girl's interest eh?" Tony quipped. Lucas looked defensive.

"Hey, I was doing just fine before he showed up!" he shot.

Tony wasn't really listening. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. It's 23:00. That club I was telling you about is about to open so let's pay the check and get going. Lots of ladies on the dance floor. And I have free passes," he said, dancing very badly to suggest what those ladies might be offering and waving two passes around in the air. Lucas shook his head.

"Uh, Tony. I don't know. The last time I went anywhere with you, on any kind of pass, I ended up kidnapped," he said hesitantly.

"Hey! How was I supposed to know it was a set up? Come on Lucas please? We have to be back at the boat in three hours. I haven't seen any action in months!" Tony begged, putting on his best puppy dog face.

Lucas sighed reluctantly. "Alright, alright. Let me guess, Can I get this?" he said, already reaching for his wallet. Tony clapped him on the shoulder.

"Could you? Ah, that's great!" Tony thanked him and headed for the exit, Lucas just shook his head. Tony always stuck him with the bill when they went anywhere. He wondered again why he had agreed to take shore leave with him. Lucas fiddled with his wallet a minute, picking through it for bills to pay their check. Their waitress turned up just as he was getting out money for a tip.

"I see your friend is in a hurry to get away," she observed sidling in closer to him. "Here let me take that for you," she said, taking the bills from his hand with a flirty smile. Lucas had let his wallet slip unnoticed onto the table, he was so busy trying to decide how to respond. He didn't see her slide her free hand over and take the wallet.

"Thanks for the tip," she said moving a little closer and licking her pink lips. Lucas was suddenly a complete klutz with no idea what to say.

"Come on Lucas!" Tony called impatiently from the beach below the dining deck.

"I'm coming!" Lucas shouted back. "I, uh, have to go," he stuttered and did everything but bolt from the restaurant. He glanced back once on his way out as she waved and mouthed "Bye,". Lucas just grinned nervously and kept going.

"Oh yeah, you're a real ladies man," Tony told him and rolled his eyes as they started down the beach. Lucas chose to ignore him.

"How far do we have to walk?" he asked, changing the subject as they hit pavement.

"Not far, about a block, The place is called _Hot Lips,_" Tony told him.

"_Hot Lips_? Is this a club or a strip joint Tony?" Lucas asked jokingly as they made their way down the street among the throngs of people, neon lights blazing around them.

"It's a club, the ladies just happen not to wear that many clothes," Tony defended himself. Lucas nodded.

"Uh huh," was all he said.

"I'd like to get one of those lady's hot lips..." Tony remarked, starting off on a tangent. It took him a moment to realize Lucas wasn't behind him. He'd stopped a few paces back. He was looking across the street to a residential apartment building. Four floors up a young woman was standing in one of the windows lighting a candle.

"Hey man, are you coming or what? Stop being a peeping tom. It's ladies night; there will be plenty of women to stare at when we get there. Besides she's not all _that_ hot," Tony complained, wanting to get to the club. Lucas was still watching the window.

"It's not that," he said. "What is today? It's June 29 isn't it?" He asked his eyes never leaving the window, the girl had moved away from it already. He was watching the candle burn in the darkness, somehow managing to outshine the lights and neon glow of the streets below. Tony checked his watch.

"Yeah so?" he said shrugging.

"It's been six years," he breathed softly, shoving his hands in his pockets out of habit.

"Six years since what?" Tony was beginning to get confused.

"Since Alexandria Northman died. She used to do that for her parents," He freed one hand and pointed at the flickering candle. "They were lost at sea during a research expedition. Their bodies were never found. Neither was hers. She died two years after they did on the way from Palo Alto, California to Dublin, Ireland. She was going on vacation; it was a freak accident. The shuttle she was on had a defective navigational system. They plowed right into a sea mount, blew the engine and the shuttle along with it. There were no survivors. She was... a friend," Lucas explained. His face took on a more subdued, quiet facade as he spoke, and his voice deepened. It had been a long time since he'd thought about her, he tried not to. Knowing she'd just ceased to exist had been a little much at fourteen years old. At nineteen it was still too much. Tony squeezed his shoulder.

"I'm sorry. Was she your girl friend?" He asked gently. Lucas shook his head and looked down at his shoes, flicking a stray pebble off the sidewalk and into the street.

"No, just a friend." he replied after a tense pause. "I was her math tutor actually. She was horrible at it. I can't even remember how many nights we sat up with me trying desperately to get her to understand it," he smiled wanly and chuckled at the memory. There had been times he had wanted to throw the math book at her, she had exasperated him beyond all reason some times. Tony dropped his hand and looked serious for a rare moment.

"Sounds like she was a nice girl. You two must have been pretty close," he said, unsure what to say.

"Yeah she was. We were good friends," Lucas answered him. He fought down the lump in his throat, they had been very good friends. She had been little more than a year older then him and they had connected on a level neither of them could achieve with their classmates. Tony was getting uncomfortable with the depressing direction the conversation was taking, and the somber look on Lucas' face wasn't helping. He perked himself up.

"Hey come on, let's get to that club. Lots of single ladies to cheer you up," he piped. Lucas took one last look back at the window, the candle still burning brightly, as he followed Tony toward their destination.

"Yeah," was all he said as they passed into the bustle of the crowd again.

When they reached the club they were met by a long line of eager patrons all jockeying for position to get in. Tony groaned.

"I hate lines," he muttered looking at the roped off corridor to the entrance. "Makes me feel like a cow in a shoot waiting to get branded." Rather than stand around waiting, he decided to try getting around the line.

"Hey! I got passes!" he yelled to the doorman. The doorman looked up at him briefly from a clipboard.

"Yeah and so does everybody else, just wait your turn!" he yelled back and returned his attention to his clipboard. Tony looked disgruntled and settled into line to wait, Lucas was quiet behind him.

"I guess we wait," Tony complained as he rifled through his wallet for identification. Absently Lucas realized he would have to have some too before they would let him in pass or no pass. He was only half thinking about the club now, the other half of his mind was busy thinking about Alexandria Northman. To be honest the club had lost any allure it might have had. No amount of pretty girls and thrumming music was going to get his mind off her. His hand went to his back pocket automatically. It was then he realized he must have left his wallet at the restaurant. He winced at his own stupidity.

"Tony, I left my wallet back at the restaurant. I'll be right back," he told him and turned back the way they had come.

"Hey, want me to come with you?" Tony asked, looking at the line ahead of them and secretly hoping he said no. The line would only get longer if they had to come back to it.

"No, no. I'll be right back. You just hold our place," Lucas assured him and trotted back toward the restaurant. He was out of hearing range before Tony could say anything in reply.

Lucas kicked himself for leaving his wallet behind; he hoped it would still be there when he got back. He walked quickly, not that he needed to. From the looks of that line they would only be half way to them when he returned. He was walking back more or less on auto pilot. He had walked these streets any number of times before. It seemed anytime the seaQuest docked in New Cape Quest, he ended up on leave with Tony Piccolo.

Tony had a very predictable idea of a good time on leave. Food and women. And it was always the same food, at the same place, and never the same woman, so he paid little attention to where he was going, letting his mind wander. He thought he would buy a candle when they left the club and light it for Alexandria before they headed back to the seaQuest. He hadn't been to her grave since the funeral had been held, despite not having a body they had buried an empty casket. He had been too busy and it had been too disturbing to visit an empty grave. He kept repeating the same thing over and over in his mind. It was the same thing he had thought ever June 29th for the last six years. Why did I never tell her?

He was paying so little attention, that he didn't even notice when pavement gave way to sand again; he didn't notice the three men standing off to one side under a palm tree, cloaked in shadows. He didn't see when one raised a weapon and fired twice, darts catching him in the back. As soon as the darts penetrated he knew he had been shot. He flailed at the darts in his back wildly with one hand, the tranquilizer in them taking effect fast. Realizing he couldn't get to the darts, he fumbled in his pocket for his PAL, managing to hit a button on its console before he sank to the ground in a crumbled heap.


	4. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Piccolo stood on the seaQuest bridge, nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof. He had waited for Lucas at the club but he'd never returned. He had even back tracked to the restaurant and no one had seen him since they had left earlier. He hadn't been able to ask their waitress if she had seen him, she was already gone by the time Tony had gotten there.

Thinking maybe Lucas had decided to ditch him, to brood over that girl he had told him about, he had gone back to the boat to check for him. He'd had no luck. Instead the entire on board crew had hit the bridge at a dead run, when Lucas' PAL had begun sending a distress signal. Most of the primary crew had already returned to the boat and had wasted no time getting to their stations.

"Captain, I'm receiving a distress signal from Lucas' PAL , twenty six degrees forty seven minutes north, eighty degrees two minutes west," Lt. O'Neill called from his station . He was still trying to cram his head set on as he rattled off the message.

Captain Nathan Bridger was behind Lt. O'Neill as fast as his feet would carry him. "Let's see it Lieutenant," He barked. O'Neill quickly punched up a display of the coordinates on the vidlink. Lucas' signal blinked red and stationary on shore.

"Put me through," Bridger demanded. Flicking switches and pressing buttons, O'Neill finally shook his head.

"I can't sir. There's no response," he told him, he cast his eyes up at him worriedly.

"Commander get up there and see what's going on," Bridger commanded. Commander Ford nodded curtly.

"Yes, sir. Dagwood, Brody you're with me," he announced and disappeared from sight, heading for the disembarkation hatches, Dagwood and Brody following behind swiftly.

"Mr. Piccolo," Bridger said turning neatly on one heel.

"Yes sir." Tony snapped to attention and quaked in side. He just knew he was about to get raked over the coals. He really didn't want to tell him Lucas had disappeared on his watch... again.

"I thought Lucas was with you?" Bridger asked, his voice was stern but curious.

"Yes sir, he was. But, he forgot his wallet. When he went back for it he never returned, sir," Tony explained, his voice dropping off at the end fearfully.

"Why didn't you report this immediately?" Bridger demanded. Tony looked down briefly under the weight of the Captain's steady gaze .

"There wasn't time sir. I back tracked and looked for him. When he wasn't there I came to look for him here. I just got here sir." Tony swallowed hard and prayed. Captain Bridger was more than a fair man and a good captain, but no one wanted to be under his scrutiny when he was angry.

"Alright," Bridger said patting Tony on the shoulder. "Take it easy we'll find him." It hadn't passed Bridger's notice that Tony looked like a mouse about to be eaten by a hungry cat. Tony nodded.

"Yes sir," he said, but it didn't make him feel any better about the situation. Turning back to O'Neill's station the captain flicked a switch.

"Commander what have you got?" he asked hopefully. The Commander came back immediately, his voice loud and clear over so short a distance.

"Almost there Captain." There was a brief pause and everyone on the bridge could hear words just too faint to make out. "There it is," Brody called out in the background.

"Commander?" Bridger asked again, he heard a sigh on the other end of the connection.

"You're not going to like this Captain. We found Lucas' PAL, but he's not with it," he relayed. Bridger closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Okay, are there any signs of where he might have gone?" Bridger asked.

"No Captain, but there are footprints leading down to the water," Commander Ford answered. "And Captain..." he paused , concern filling his voice. "There are drag marks, some one didn't leave here willing."

"Understood, get back to the boat," Bridger told him. There was a leaden silence for a moment.

"Yes, sir," Ford said, then the link went quiet.

He leaned heavily on the con for a minute before giving orders. All eyes were on him, and all of them looked worried, you could have heard a pin drop.

"Henderson get us in the water, they have to have taken him somewhere off shore. Ortiz see if you can find their fuel residue trail. O'Neill keep monitoring for signals, this is Lucas we're talking about, if anybody can get a message to us it's him. And recall the rest of the crew. Dr. Smith to the bridge," he ordered. There was a chorus of "Aye aye, sir." and then the sounds of quiet but swift action. Where ever Lucas had gone to, they would find him.

**#****#**

Lucas came to slowly, his vision was clouded and all he could manage to see were faintly colored blobs moving around him. All he could hear were snatches of muffled voices. His head was killing him. He groaned in pain despite himself, one hand going to his head as he tried to sit up. He was immediately pushed back down.

"He's coming out of it!" a male voice growled from who ever had shoved him back.

"Well knock him back out! We can't risk him getting loose and in control of the computer system!" another male voice commanded. Lucas coughed and tried to speak. His voice was raspy, his throat dry. How long had he been out? It felt like he hadn't had anything to drink in days.

"Who are you? What do you want?" he managed to get out, though he still couldn't see or hear well enough to discern his surroundings. He could tell he was under water though. On a shuttle of some type probably.

"Don't worry about that Mr. Wolenczak. You'll find out soon enough," snapped the voice of the man who was apparently commanding at least one other.

"Wolenczak? Lucas Wolenczak? Are you insane? Is he insane? He's part of the _seaQuest_ crew! Do you know what they are going to do to us when they find us?" the other man rambled.

"Just knock him back out, before I throw you out the air lock," the commanding man ordered.

"Yes sir," the other man said, he didn't sound happy about it.

"You won't get away with this." Lucas growled. Damn it, why couldn't he get his motor skills back faster? He could hear shuffling and then felt the distinct sensation of a hypo-spray pressed to his neck, heard the hiss of the injection.

"Oh, but we already have and the _seaQuest_ will never find us," the commanding man assured Lucas as he faded back into oblivion. The last thought he had was to wonder who the "he" the other man had mentioned was, and what did "he" want?

**#***#**

"Can you sense anything?" Bridger asked for the third time in an hour. They still hadn't come across anything to track where or with whom Lucas had gone. The fact that someone hadn't left willingly from the location where Lucas had disappeared concerned him. He knew it was Lucas who hadn't left willingly. It was the only thing that made sense.

Wendy Smith shook her head, dark hair falling forward to fringe her face like wings. "No Captain. I've tried. Several times. I keep scanning but I can't sense him. He could just be out of range. I don't know." Her eyes were very worried, her face was a lined mask of concentration.

"Damn it!" Bridger cursed, slamming his fist down on the con station panel. No one on the bridge said a word. "Doesn't anyone have anything for me?" he half demanded, half pleaded. Everyone shook their head, exchanging concerned glances.

"Captain, we are trying. But it's like who ever took Lucas just disappeared. So far we haven't found a single trace," said Commander Ford.

"I've tried every thing I can think of and the WSKRS still haven't picked up anything," Ortiz said dismally.

"I can't pick up anything on sonar either Captain. Who ever it was is being very quiet about it," O'Neill added quietly. "The only thing I can hear is a pod of dolphins about five klicks from our current position Captain."

There was a splash from the bridge pool, followed by a series of clicks and whistles. Darwin had come up to the bridge, his slender beak poked out of the water. He moved about the pool in slow agitated circles.

"Darwin help. Darwin find Lucas," he pleaded via the vocorder. Bridger leaned over the edge of the pool, rubbing the dolphin's melon affectionately.

"Yes my friend. I know you want to help. Maybe you can find something we can't," Bridger said softly.

"Darwin good hunter. Find Lucas like find fish," Darwin assured him. Bridger nodded at him and smiled.

"I'm sure you will. Go, find Lucas for us. Good luck Darwin," he told him. Darwin bobbed his head in answer then dove back under the water and disappeared through the aqua tubes. Bridger really hoped Darwin could find Lucas, they were certainly having no luck.

"Let him out, maybe he will find something we can't," Bridger ordered.

"Yes sir, I sure hope so Captain," Lt. Henderson responded from her station.

"So do I," Bridger said, watching Darwin exit the ship, his re-breather on, as he swam in search of his friend.

**#***#**

When Lucas came to again he was no longer in the shuttle, his vision and hearing were still hazy and his motor functions weren't exactly working correctly, but where ever he was, he was lying on a medical bed. He fought for his voice again, licking parchment dry lips.

"Where am I? What do you want?" he asked again of no one in particular. He wasn't even sure there was any one in the room with him.  
"You are at El Orquídea Jardines Resort, Mr. Wolenczak and I sincerely hope you enjoy your stay. As for what I want, well let's just say I'd greatly enjoy it, if you'd stay and help me with my work for a while," answered a calm, male, English accented voice.

Lucas tried to force his body to regain its senses faster, the headache he'd had before was twice as bad now. Had he heard of El Orquidea Jardines before? It sounded familiar for some reason. What work was the man talking about?

"What work? Who are you?" Lucas rasped, his voice was coming back more now, his vision and hearing were clearer too. Now he could see a washed out, blurry image of a man standing not far from the bed. His motor functions were taking longer to recover, it felt like his limbs were made of lead.

"In answer to your question I am Dr. Ryan Sanborn. And as for my work well, you'll see in all due time, have no fear," the voice replied.

Lucas tried to bide for time, he wasn't sure he really wanted to know what this man's work was. He had to think, force his brain and body to cooperate.

"Can I have some water, or something?" he asked, there kill two birds with one stone, stall and get some fluid into him, his tongue felt like a dry cloth crammed in his mouth.

"Of course," the voice assented. No sooner had the voice consented than Lucas felt a hand under his head and a straw pressed to his lips. He drank, quenching his thirst. He had downed the whole glass before he knew it. The anonymous hand laid his head back on the bed again gently. So he wasn't alone in the room with this man. Who ever he was.

Lucas racked his brain, he had heard about this place before somewhere he was sure of it. He had no idea who Dr. Sanborn was, the name escaped him, either he had never heard of him before or he just couldn't remember through the fog induced by the tranquilizers. Then it hit him.

"Wait a minute, I do know this place. This is the Puerto Rico Trench, the Mona Rift. This place was shut down, evacuated, ten years ago. An sea quake wiped the whole place out. It was all over the news," Lucas argued. If this really was El Orquídea Jardines Resort, it shouldn't have been here, it should have been turned into scrap long ago.

"Ah, so you have heard of it. I didn't think, given your age at the time, you would have. Yes it was evacuated, and yes it was badly damaged by seismic activity ten years ago. If there had been anyone here at the time, they would have died, but I've turned it into a serviceable facility again. You'll see soon enough Mr. Wolenczak," the voice assured him.

"What do you mean help you with your work?" Lucas asked angrily. This guy was really beginning to tick him off. He had abducted him, tranquilized him, drug him at least one thousand miles from New Cape Quest, and he was acting like he was making him a job offer over lunch! He was also avoiding directly answering anything Lucas asked.

"I think that you, Mr. Wolenczak would make a fine addition to my facility. You'd be working with some of the greatest scientific minds in the world," the voice responded casually, unperturbed by the angry edge to Lucas' voice.

The anger actually seemed to help, maybe the adrenalin was making the tranquilizer burn off faster, he could see almost normally now, his hearing was fine and he could move weakly. When he did move he realized he wasn't just lying in the bed he was secured to it by restraints.

"This is a hell of a way to make a job offer," Lucas spat, pulling against the bindings as his strength began to ebb back in. He could see the man now, the man didn't look particularly dangerous. Though he was lanky like Lucas, he was taller. In his forties, with a receding hair line and closely cropped brown hair. His glasses kept slipping down his nose. Just a run of the mill guy in a lab coat looked back at him.

Dr. Sanborn chuckled and tutted regretfully as he came closer to the bed. "Yes, well, I couldn't have you attempting to run off before you were able to consider my offer. Now could I?" he chided.

"It doesn't sound like I have much of a choice," Lucas threw back. The man laughed at him, that just made Lucas angrier.

"Yes well that's one way of looking at it. I see you are coming about just fine, shall we take a look about the grounds?" the Doctor asked him.

"I'd rather not," Lucas shot, chaffing his wrists and ankles against the restraints.

"I'm afraid that wasn't a request Mr. Wolenczak," the man said and moved away from the bed, motioning to some one just out side the door of the room. In stepped two guards, armed with plasma guns. They moved forward, one drew his gun and aimed it at Lucas, the other moved to remove his restraints. With the gun trained on him, Lucas didn't dare make a break for it. Not yet anyway. Instead he sat up wobbly and glared at the doctor as his arms were placed behind his back and cuffed.

"Is this really necessary?" he complained, he glared unblinking at the doctor. The man chortled.

"For you Mr. Wolenczak? I'm afraid so. I can't have you getting loose and risk you gaining access to the computer system. I am well aware of how good you are with such things," the man told him.

"Go to hell." he said. The doctor looked offended.

"Such rudeness isn't necessary Mr. Wolenczak. Come along I have so much to show you," Dr. Sanborn said extending a hand as if to envelope him in a friendly embrace. Instead Lucas was escorted along with two guns trained on him. He stalked along after the doctor and pummeled his now functioning brain cells for a way to escape. The place didn't look anything like a resort, not now. What ever it had looked like, now it was white walls, steel and the cold stillness of a research facility. That was surely what this was, it couldn't be anything else.

As they moved along Dr. Sanborn pointed out various rooms filled with computer equipment, banks of CPUs, servers, and databases. Personnel wandered about as if they weren't even there. The place was minimally staffed from the looks of things but there were still enough to be a problem if Lucas tried to make a sudden run for it. They passed some rooms the Doctor chose not to show him. That was more telling that what he did. What was Dr. Sanborn hiding?

"I'm afraid you will be seeing things a bit in reverse. I'd like to show you the rest of my work before I show you my main project, however, they are all interconnected. This is the nursery, the next generation of my research if you will," Dr. Sanborn explained as they came to a wall covered with ceiling to floor windows. Lucas moved to the windows and peered in. Inside were six children, boys and girls, none could have been more than, two or three years old, and some were still infants. They played happily on the floor along side employees, or napped in cribs. He felt his heart stop for a beat.

"Why do you have children here? What have you done to them?" he demanded. The very idea that this man might be using children in some sort of research made Lucas' skin crawl. Doctor Sanborn looked horrified.

"Nothing! You really do misjudge me. I'd never hurt a child! It's against my philosophy. These are the children of the scientist here. Why two of them are my own," he criticized, pointing out a little boy and an infant girl with his hair and eyes.

"One day they will help me continue my research," he added thoughtfully. Lucas glared at him.

"I have a feeling what ever research you're doing isn't worth helping with," he said sharply.

"Oh, I would ask you to please with hold judgment on that until you've seen everything, Mr. Wolenczak," the Doctor said as they moved on. The doctor continued showing Lucas more rooms, a galley, nothing of any really consequence. He stopped before two large doors that looked like they would be more fitting on a docking bay that an interior room. Lucas looked them over wondering what was behind them.

"This Mr. Wolenczak is where you will see my greatest accomplishment. I'm sure you will be very impressed," he said practically glowing. What ever it was he was very proud of it.

"I'm sure I won't," Lucas retorted. For the first time the Doctor shot him an angry look, but quickly covered it and hit the side button that let the doors open with a whoosh.

As they walked inside, Lucas saw that the room was circular, all the walls were covered with computers, very advanced computers. They had virtually controlled panels not keyboards. People rushed back and forth between them, others "throwing" things from one screen to another. The only place not occupied by the computers was a curtained off area, beyond which Lucas couldn't see. Despite what he had said Lucas was impressed with the breadth of the place. State of the art computers, equipment whirring away. If the circumstances had been different he might actually have enjoyed visiting the place. Instead all he wanted to do was get loose and get his hands on one of those computer consoles to get in touch with the seaQuest.

"Yes, see I told you, you'd be impressed. I have found a way to prevent crime, to know when and where it will happen before it does. Ways to solve crimes that have happened already. I may even be able to predict natural disasters and wars before they happen and avoid them altogether," Dr. Sanborn rambled on proudly. Lucas looked tense and skeptical. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like this.

"How?" he asked suspiciously. The Doctor didn't say anything, he only motioned for him to follow, prodded by plasma guns, Lucas had little choice but to follow.

The doctor lead them to the curtained area, pulling them aside with aplomb. "I'd like you to meet the scientists who work on my little project. This is only a small sample of course, I have many more working for me at other locations but this will give you the basic idea," he announced.

Lucas peered around the curtain and his blood ran cold. There were no scientists up working busily at their stations. Instead he saw a long row of medical beds, six of which had still forms lying on them, a multitude of wires and tubes running to and from their bodies. At this distance it was impossible to tell if the wires and tubes ran to them or in them.

"Oh my God. What have you done?" he breathed his heart beat picking up rapidly.

"Done? I've managed to create a system that will eradicate crime! You see before you three of the world's leading scientists in various fields of study and three psychics. You see the psychics devote all their time to trying to see crimes that have yet to occur. The scientists themselves work on solving cases no one else has solved yet or those the psychics saw but not in enough time to stop. The computer interface allows them to work at speeds no human has ever dreamed of, prevents them from being distracted by less worthy pursuits," the Doctor explained coldly. His voice betrayed not a single feeling of sympathy for the people lying on those beds.

He wrapped an arm around Lucas' shoulders and pulled him toward the beds, Lucas stared down at the men and women they passed. He felt sick, the wires and tubes weren't just on them, they were in them. Some looked like regular medical equipment, probably to keep them alive, but the bundle of wires that ran from their heads made his skin crawl. The wires were linked into a separate battery pack and CPU networked into the main system. The doctor had said the children in the nursery were the children of the scientists here. It dawned on him that the Doctor had to be breeding children from these people without their knowledge. They were the next in line to join their parents in this sick experiment. He stopped and looked at the Doctor, horror on his face.

"These people are wired into computers! You're using them like some kind of sick information hub!" he told him. The Doctor looked stern and stepped toward him.

"Mr. Wolenczak, the ends justify the means. They are in no pain. They are helping to make the world a better place. Better than it has ever been. One day they will be heros!" he defended himself, he was beginning to look angry but Lucas was on a roll and his anger had gotten the better of him.

"You abducted them, just like you did me didn't you? That waitress, you had her steal my wallet so I'd go back for it. You set me up! You're insane!" he railed. He realized to late that he'd pushed the man too far, his face was flushed and he had hauled back his hand. Lucas tried to step back but felt plasma rifles stop his progress. The Doctor struck him hard across the face, nearly toppling him. Lucas fought to right himself, trying to ignore the last body in the bed by him. He didn't think he could stand to see another of their faces, lying there like they had been laid out for a funeral. Despite his best efforts he did see the face of the person in the bed and he felt his knees go weak, he sagged, bracing himself on the bottom rung of the bed for support.

The golden blonde hair had been cut shorter, to the shoulders. The eyes were shut as if in sleep, a respirator tube was wedged in the mouth, but there was no mistaking the face.

"Alex," he breathed.


	5. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Nathan Bridger was pacing the bridge of the _seaQuest_ like a big cat locked in a small cage. They had been searching for hours, and not a single sign of Lucas. Darwin had returned with nothing that could help them either. They kept scanning, kept searching, sending Darwin out as they traveled and still not a single thing even hinting at where Lucas might be. Worry was beginning to give him a very sharp edge. The bridge was quiet as a grave yard except for the soft, constant beep of the sonar and the faint sound of typing.

"Damn it. You mean to tell me, that the best boat in the entire fleet, the best crew in the UEO, can't find a damn thing to lead us to Lucas?" he raved. The crew looked like they might all bolt. He knew he couldn't really blame them. They were trying. He was just beyond frustrated at this point. Dr. Smith placed a comforting hand on his arm, trying to calm him.

"Nathan, you aren't helping, you're just making the crew more nervous. We're all worried about Lucas," she said softly, moving to look him in the eye and draw his attention. Bridger leaned against a bulk head heavily.

"I know. I know. I'm just worried. I mean, how can there be no trace of him? Not a fuel trail, no sonar, nothing. It's like he's ceased to exist," he said sadly. Ortiz suddenly made himself heard.

"Captain I've got something. I'm picking up temperature discrepancies. They might not have left a fuel residue trail, but they did heat up the water. I don't know if it's Lucas, but someone's been through here recently," he told him.

"Are there any ships in the vicinity?" Bridger asked hopefully. Ortiz shook his head.

"No Captain, I'm sorry." he said. Bridger nodded. "Very well, follow that trail, set course full speed ahead, rig for silent running. I don't want who ever has him to see us coming," he ordered.

"Aye aye, sir!" confirmed Lt. Henderson, her voice rising in tone, and hope tinged her voice.

Suddenly the bridge was a flurry of activity. Commander Ford was relaying orders and people were scrambling to comply as fast as their fingers would let them. Bridger stood and watched as they began to plot a course, he paused only a moment before he dove back into his thoughts.

"And Mr. Ortiz... good work," was all he said. Ortiz looked back at him and smiled.

"Thank you Captain."

**#***#**

"Oh my God." Lucas rambled, this was why no one ever found her body. It felt like someone had grabbed hold of his heart, squeezed it tight and pulled. She laid there like she was made of marble or stone, the effigy on a sarcophagus. If it weren't for the constant beep of the life support systems and the shallow but steady rise and fall of her chest he would have thought her dead. Her face was thinner, almost gaunt, her arms, the only thing not under the blanket, were thin and spindly. His mind was playing tricks on him, he could have sworn for one hopeful moment that her eyelids flickered.

"Oh? So you two know each other?" Dr. Sanborn asked, his face still blotched red, but now contorted into a curious expression. "How nice. It will be so wonderful for you to have someone you know here, it will make the transition much easier for you. It will cut our tour a bit short however," he added.

"What? Transition? You bastard! Unhook her! Let her go!" Lucas screamed. He was beyond all reasoning at this point. His hair was a wild mop on his head, strands hanging in his eyes. The Doctor stood up taller, his back board straight, clasping his hands behind him. He dropped all pretense of civility.

"I'm sorry. That's quite impossible. If she is unhooked she'll die," he told him matter of fact. Lucas itched to get his hands around the man's neck so bad he was clinching and unclenched his cuffed fists.

"You son of a bitch. You monster!" Lucas wasn't sure if he should bolt or stand and fight. He was one large ball of raging anger. The doctor didn't even seem to hear him.

"However, you can join her," he commented dryly and nodded curtly to the two guards behind Lucas. Instantly they seized him, wrestling him toward the bed beside Alexandria. Lucas realized exactly what they were about to do and began thrashing around trying to break free, but with his hands bound there was little chance of that. They shoved him flat on the bed, one of the guards finagled the cuffs off him so he could restrain him to the bed. Lucas tried to wrench free, but the guards were larger than he was and he couldn't. No one noticed the soft moan from nearby or the rasping of bed sheets.

"Let go of me! You'll never get away with this!" he raged at them. The doctor grinned as one of the guards tried to force Lucas' wrist into a restraint.

"Oh but I already have," the doctor bragged. Suddenly the life support monitor next to Alexandria's bed went skittering across the floor and she lurched from the bed, falling like a rag doll and taking one of the guards down with her. Lucas scrambled back on the bed in horror and fear. He thought for a brief moment, the struggle had some how knocked Alex off her bed.

The doctor was suddenly divided. He didn't look like he knew what to do. Get Alexandria back in the bed or get Lucas secured first? The downed guard was trying to wriggle his way out from under the girl's dead weight as she managed to pull the respirator tube from her mouth. The doctor stood paralyzed with indecision and it cost him dearly. She gasped and managed to speak.

"Lucas run," she wheezed, lying there on the floor boneless. Lucas looked from her to the doctor and back. He needed to get out of there but wanted to help her and so could do neither.

"I said run!" she managed a little more forcefully. The doctor seemed to come out of his daze and made a lunge for Lucas. That jerked him back into reality and Lucas ran. He was half way to the doors before anyone could even realize what was going on in the chaos. The doctor jumped into action.

"Get him! " he screamed to anyone who would listen as he rushed forward to drag Alexandria's joint less form off the fallen guard. Lucas looked back only once, to see her there, dangling from the doctor's arms, limp, her eyes shut as if they had never opened, before he hit the side door button and disappeared down the corridor, Dr. Sanborn's people in hot pursuit.

Lucas pelted down the hallways, trying door after door, looking for a place to hide, a place to call for help. He had no chance unarmed and out numbered. He scrabbled around corners, sometimes sliding around them like he was on wheels. His hand finally fell on a handle that gave under his weight, he barreled through the door and locked it behind him. Looking around wildly he dove for the nearest computer console and began banging away on the keys, intently trying to gain access to their communications system. Thankfully this computer was normal, not like one of the ones in the lab. He'd have had to waste time figuring out the interface if it had been.

"This place is locked up tighter than Fort Knox," he muttered as he worked , eyes darting from the keyboard to the screen to the door and back again. He knew it was only a matter of time before they found him, he had to work quickly. His hands flew over the keys and numbers scrolled over the screen so fast, they became a blur. The computer kept blurping a negative response with every code Lucas tried, but he kept right on going, one of them had to work. Finally the computer beeped. He almost didn't believe he'd heard it, until access granted popped up on the screen.

"Yes!" he hissed. He hit connect and prayed.

**#***#**

"Captain! I've got a distress signal coming in. And it's got Lucas' ID on it!" O'Neill yelped suddenly from the communications station. Bridger thought he heard him wrong for a split second. Every crew member on the bridge looked at one another in desperate hope.

"On screen," Bridger barked.

"Yes sir!" confirmed O'Neill swiveling back around in his chair and flicking a switch. Lucas' face popped up on the screen and a huge sigh of relief went over the bridge like a wave.

"Lucas where are you? Are you okay?" Bridger queried him. Lucas nodded.

"Yes, Captain I'm fine. I'm at El Orquídea Jardines Resort, in the Puerto Rico Trench. I don't have a lot of time here Captain. It's just a matter of time before they find me. I was kidnapped, by a man named Dr. Ryan Sanborn. Captain, he has people wired into computers," Lucas told him the words coming out in one large rush.

"Lucas, El Orquídea Jardines was destroyed in a sea quake ten years ago. What do you mean people wired into computers?" Bridger asked a little confused.

"Yeah well apparently not, because I'm here. I mean he has living people wired into a computer main frame by their brains. He wants to add me to his collection. There are children involved in this, I think he's breeding them from the people he has wired into the computers. Captain you have to do something, this guy is insane," Lucas pleaded.

"Oh dear God. Alright, we'll do something Lucas. You know we will. For now stay somewhere safe. Can you get away, a shuttle maybe?" Bridger said. Lucas shook his head.

"I don't know Captain, he's got people looking for me I don't think I'd make it to a launch bay without being seen," he confessed.

"We're on our way Lucas. Just hold on," Bridger assured him. There were sounds off the screen of rustling, creaking metal.

"Oh no," Lucas breathed, and disappeared from the the view screen.

"Lucas! Lucas! What's going on?" Bridger asked frantically, but received no answer, the screen went dead.

"Get him back!" Bridger ordered, O'Neill tried to comply but shook his head.

"I can't Captain, we've lost the signal," he said sadly.

"Damn it. Set course for El Orquídea Jardines. Red alert, emergency speed!" Bridger barked.

"All stations rig for emergency speed!" shouted Commander Ford. Meanwhile Lt. O'Neill was announcing the alarm over the boat's communication system. The lights switched to red and an alarm began blaring.

"Diverting all power to impellers. Opening secondary intakes," Lt. Henderson called. People were making mad dashes for their stations. Henderson was going through buttons and switches like it was a contest.

"Turbo heaters engaged. Control surfaces modified!" She confirmed.

"We're rigged for emergency speed Captain," Commander Ford announced.

"Then get us the hell out of here Commander!" Bridger barked.

The _seaQuest_ shot out on course. She was fast, Bridger just hoped she was fast enough.

**#***#**

When he had heard the door behind him scrape open Lucas had dove for cover out of instinct. Not that it would help, there was no where in the room to hide. Dr. Sanborn's head had emerged through the space backed by several guards, armed with plasma rifles. Lucas couldn't run and he couldn't fight. He was cornered. The Doctor looked at him, and the view screen, then back again. He looked heart broken. Lucas was confused, wasn't he going to kill him, or drag him off to be jacked into the computer system along with the others?

"You have no idea what you've done. You have no idea! I'll have to destroy it all! I won't let them stop me!" he raved. His eyes had taken on a crazed look. He ran his hands over his face a moment looking everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "No matter, I have other locations. You won't stop me!" he raged on and before Lucas had a chance to say or do anything, he had whirled around and disappeared through the door again, the guards in tow behind him.

Lucas sagged back against the wall. He had been really worried there for a minute. He didn't know or care why the man had turned tail and run. Gathering his wits , he tried to reestablish communication with the _seaQuest_, before he could, an alarm began wailing and a computerized voice came blaring over the communications system.

"Warning, self destruct in thirty minutes. Please evacuate immediately," it droned. Lucas ran for the door, he had to find a way out of here before the whole thing blew. He careened out into the hallways, pushed and shoved out of the way by running personnel desperate to get out of here themselves. Lucas looked around frantically trying to decide what to do.

He could follow the fleeing employees, they had to be heading for the launch bays. Someone rushed passed him with one of the children from the nursery in their arms, the child was crying aloud its fear. He started to follow them, try to steal a shuttle, then stopped, he couldn't just leave Alex and all those people in there. He had to try and get them out. Thirty minutes wasn't near enough time to get them disconnected, if they were even going to bother. He turned and ran for the huge operations room he had escaped from only a short while ago.

He slammed the side door button hard and pelted back into the room, with the computer voice still jabbering its warning to evacuate, he dashed behind the curtained off area and looked the computer consoles over. Five of the beds still beeped and whirred away with their occupants, but one had gone dark and silent. Lucas rushed over to discern what was going on. It didn't take him long to figure it out.

They were systematically shutting down. He tried desperately to get the unit to come back on line, fumbling with the unfamiliar interface, but it was dead, and by the bio readings so was the bed's occupant. Lucas gripped his pounding head, thinking. He had to do something. They were all going to die if he didn't at least try to get them out. The doctor's words rung in his thoughts. If she is unhooked she will die. Lucas didn't care he had to try and save her and them.

He rounded the next bed and began trying to disconnect the occupant from the system, he realized he wasn't working fast enough to beat the system shut down, it was working faster than he could, one by one the lights on the bed's units where going dark. He knew he couldn't save the occupant, there was no way. He abandoned him and moved to the next, trying to get ahead of the shut down while it killed off the other person. But Lucas still wasn't fast enough, Dr. Sanborn had obviously never meant for anyone to survive the shut down. Lucas hit the console in anger and frustration so hard his hand throbbed. He couldn't beat the system this way, maybe if he worked from last to first he might have a chance. It was Alex in the last bed, he prayed he could get more than just her out.

He skidded around her bed and began trying to gain access through the console that controlled her support units. The system refused to respond, Lucas was going to have to do some complex work here if he was going to get through the system's safe guards. He threw himself into it, drowning out the blare of the evacuation order.

**#***#**

The _seaQuest_ drifted to a stop on the El Orquídea Jardines outskirts.

"WSKRS view," Bridger ordered. He didn't have to wait long, Ortiz had it punched up in short order. What he saw made him stop dead. Shuttles were streaming away from the compound like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

"What's going on?" he demanded of anyone who'd answer. O'Neill shook his head.

"I don't know Captain, no one is broadcasting anything," he said, it was Henderson that found the answer.

"Captain, they've initiated a self destruct sequence, that whole place is going to blow in fifteen minutes," she told him.

"Is Lucas still down there? Is anybody?" Bridger asked.

"I'm getting readings of two life signs left on the resort Captain, either everybody else is dead or they already evacuated," Ortiz relayed.

"One of them is Lucas! I can feel it," Dr. Smith declared loudly.

"O'Neill hail him. Commander get over there and get Lucas out of there! Doctor you might want to get down to the medical bay we may be needing it." Commander Ford grabbed Brody and several of his men and dashed for the launch bays at a dead run. Dr. Smith turned and fled the bridge for the medical bay without a word.

O'Neill began hailing attempts immediately. " El Orquídea Jardines this is the _seaQuest_. Please respond." No answer. He tried again. " El Orquídea Jardines this is the UEO vessel _seaQuest_ please respond. Lucas come on." This time he got an answer, Lucas' bowed head popped up on the screen, moving back and forth frantically.

"Captain I sort of have a problem here," Lucas greeted him without looking up.

"Lucas! Get out of there! Ford is on his way over with a team to get you. That place is about to self destruct!" Bridger told him. Lucas shook his head but didn't look up from what ever he was working on.

"I can't Captain, he set the systems that control the people jacked into this computer system to shut down. It's killing them Captain," Lucas told him.

"Lucas, you have to get to a launch bay, You can't save them!" Bridger tried to reason with him. Lucas shook his head again.

"Sorry Captain you don't understand. I know one of them. She's the only one left alive Captain, there's more than one location, more people he's done this to, she's the only one who can tell us where Dr. Sanborn might have gone," he explained.

"What do you mean you know her? Lucas, I'm giving you an order, get out of there now." Bridger snapped.

"I mean I know her. She was a friend in college. I'm a civilian Captain, I don't have to obey orders!" Lucas shot back still working. Bridger looked incredulous.

"On my boat you do!" he said back. Lucas suddenly let out a whoop as something did what he wanted. He looked up at the screen briefly before disconnecting the communication.

"Sorry Captain, not this time," he told him and the screen went black.

Bridger could do nothing but gape at the blank screen in shock.

**#***#**

Lucas shook his head. You're just going to have to understand Captain, like it or not, he thought. He had managed to isolate the life support systems from the shut down process, now he could focus on getting her CPU and battery pack unlinked from the mainframe. He knew he was racing against time and Commander Ford would be here any second. The computer blared a ten minute warning. Lucas' heart was racing, his hands flying over the virtual interface.

"Come on,come on." he pleaded with the computer. He heard the doors open behind him, he knew it had to be Commander Ford even if he couldn't see him. He kept working he had no time to loose.

"Lucas?" Commander Ford called as he rounded the curtain. He looked on the scene with horror. Brody looked like he was going to be sick behind him.

"Lucas we have to go, this place is about to blow," Commander Ford tried to reason with him. Lucas ignored him.

"Lucas listen to me. You have to stop this , we're all going to die here. You have to come on. There's no time," Brody interjected. Commander Ford had stepped forward and firmly gripped Lucas' arm. Lucas looked up at him, his face full of pleading.

"Lucas, I will make you leave by force if I have to." he warned him.

"Commander please. I've almost got her. Please I have to." he begged. Commander Ford rolled his eyes in exasperation, but he nodded. "You've got three minutes."

"Thank you!" Lucas said and went back to frantically over riding the computer's mainframe. Brody didn't say anything but looked decidedly uncomfortable standing there. So did the rest of the men on the team. Lucas was so engrossed, when the computer released its hold on the CPU and battery pack he couldn't believe it. He stepped back and looked at it, almost in confusion. He realized it had worked.

"Yes!" he shouted and dove under the bed pulling wires out of their ports from the mainframe. "Somebody unhook the life support system!" he shouted. It was Commander Ford who stepped forward and began unhooking it, while Lucas unhooked first the battery pack and then the CPU from the network, setting the cases on Alex's abdomen. The Commander looked at him.

"Are you done?" he asked. "Yes," Lucas replied. "Then let's get the hell out of here," the Commander said as they pushed the bed along in front of them racing for the launch bay. The warning system blared again.

"Five minutes until self destruct."


	6. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Bridger was more than a little annoyed that Lucas had essentially hung up on him, and blatantly defied an order. It didn't help that Commander Ford wasn't answering his PAL. He was busy drumming his fingers on the Captain's navigation table when Lt. Henderson jerked him back to attention.

"Captain, the self destruct is down to two minutes and there's been no sight of our launch," she told him obvious fear in her voice.

"And Commander Ford is still not answering his PAL Captain, no matter how much I try," added Lt. O'Neill.

"One minute Captain," warned Henderson.

"Understood. Full reverse, get us out of blast range," he ordered. He had no choice, he didn't like it but there was nothing else he could do.

"Yes sir. Full reverse," confirmed Henderson as she began rapidly executing commands to pull the _seaQuest_ back from the resort.

"What about Commander Ford and the others?" O'Neill asked, not that he didn't know the answer already, but well what else could he say?

"There's nothing else we can do Lieutenant. We'll send over a rescue team once it blows and hope we get lucky," Bridger told him, he looked very worn and taut. He had accepted that he was going to be calling several families in the next few hours. No one could survive that blast.

Ortiz had taken over watching the resort's self destruct count down. He began counting it out loud as it reached the bottom.

" Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One."

The whole bridge had gone silent, the last number hadn't been more than a whisper. Everyone held their breath as the resort blew, sending plumes of hot water ahead of the fire balls that issued from all over the structure. The only thing that could be heard on deck was the solemn beeping of equipment.

Suddenly Henderson was standing up, whooping and pointing at the vidlink.

"Look! Look! It's the launch! They made it!" she cried, as the launch came flying through a plume of flames, pushed along at top speed by the force behind the explosion. By now everybody was on their feet whooping and hollering right along with Henderson in relief. Bridger called for order trying to be heard over the roar of voices, though the temptation to join in was overwhelming.

"Alright, alright! Let's get them home," he said as Lt. O'Neill suddenly sat down and pitched his voice over the still loud contingent of voices.

"Captain, I've got Commander Ford," he said and punched the vidlink up. Ford's face appeared on the screen, and the whole bridge threatened to be thrown into another riot of cheers.

"Are you alright Commander?" Bridger asked. Just because Ford had gotten out alive didn't mean the rest had.

"We made it Captain, barely. All of us are okay. We have a survivor who's going to need life support as soon as we get there, she's not going to last more than a few minutes without it," the Commander told him. Bridger nodded.

"Understood, I'll have a medical team standing by in medical bay. See you there. And Commander, nice driving," he said with a smile. Commander Ford actually half grinned.

"Brody was the one driving not me," he confessed as he snapped off the vidlink and veered in for the docking bays.

**#***#**

As the medical bay doors opened, Lucas was latched to the medical bed rail as it trundled along. Medical staff and Dr. Smith descended on them like a flock of gulls and he lost his grip on the bed in all the jostling. Before he knew it Alexandria was being pushed away and he tried to follow, but Dr. Smith stepped in to stop him.

"You can't go with her Lucas. You'll just be in the way," she told him softly. She knew he knew the girl and the wave of emotion coming off him was so strong it was palpable.

"But I want to go with her!" Lucas begged, looked over the Doctor's shoulder as the medical team flitted around hooking Alexandria back up to a life support system.

"I know. But right now the best thing you can do for her is wait here. I promise I'll come get you as soon as I have her stable," she told him, gently squeezing his elbow and giving him a warm consoling look before heading toward the bed. Lucas started to follow, but Bridger caught him before he could.

"Hold on now. Wendy is right. You need to be out of the way for the moment," he agreed. Lucas looked sullen, stuffing his hands in his pockets and casting side ways glances at him. Bridger started to lead him a bit further away, for now they would just talk. Lucas was obviously not in any condition to be reprimanded for disobeying orders right this minute.

"Why don't you tell me exactly what happened down there while we wait?" he suggested, gently. The heart monitor suddenly began to whine steadily.

"Warning, Code One, Vital signs have dropped below acceptable limits." it squawked. Alexandria had flat lined.

"Get me a crash cart now!" Dr. Smith yelled.

Lucas tried to bolt past Captain Bridger to get to Alexandria but Bridger grabbed him firmly to stop him.

"Let me go!" Lucas shouted at him trying to wrench free. Bridger shook him to get his attention.

"No! Wait!" he command forcefully. Lucas wasn't listening, he continued to struggle as the crash cart came rolling in and the medical team tried to resuscitate Alexandria, it was in vain, Bridger had too firm a grip on him and he couldn't get loose.

"200, clear!" Dr. Smith shouted, and the defibrillator crackled as it discharged. There was a stagnant pause before she tried it again.

"300, clear!" she shouted and the defibrillator whumped as it was used again. Again that dreaded pause.

"We've got her back!" Dr. Smith called, knowing Lucas was in a panic just outside and able to still see everything that was going on.

Lucas went limp with relief and it turned out to be a good thing that Bridger already had a hold on him, or he might have slid to the floor. His heart was pounding and he really wanted nothing more than to be with Alexandria at the moment and couldn't. Briefing the Captain on his little adventure was not the first thing on his mind.

"Come on, let's sit down and we can talk. It'll help keep your mind off things," Bridger assured him, some how Lucas doubted it, but let him lead him to a chair and all but sit him in it. The medical team was moving around at a brisk but normal pace now, so he figured Alexandria must be somewhat stable. At least he could see what was going on.

Lucas spent the better part of an hour telling Captain Bridger what had happened since he had disappeared. Tony, Henderson, Ortiz, and O'Neill had all poked their heads in at one point or another to check on him and say they were glad he was safe. Someone on the medical staff came by and checked him over, giving him something for his head ache and what might turn out to be a black eye. He barely noticed. Commander Ford had disappeared off some where along with his team, probably to take over the bridge while the Captain was talking to him. Lucas guessed the Commander would give his report later.

By now the medical team had begun to break up, leaving only Dr. Smith and two others to assist her. Lucas had begun to relax a little, the doctor cast reassuring glances out to him from behind the glass occasionally as she worked so Lucas thought things must be going okay, even if he hadn't been told he could go in yet.

"Alright, now then. Who is she? And how do you know her?" Bridger asked nodding in Alexandria's direction. Lucas sighed in frustration and leaned back in his chair.

"That's Alexandria Northman. We went to college together. I was her math tutor part of the time she was there," he told him, not offering anything else. His emotions were so muddled right now he wasn't sure he could deal with telling him more about her.

"Alexandria Northman? Why does that name sound familiar?" Bridger wondered aloud.

"It should Captain, she's the person that invented the synthetic pancreas. Effectively eradicating diabetes and other pancreatic diseases altogether," Lucas said.

"She's that Alexandria Northman? She's no older than you!" Bridger exclaimed. Lucas nailed him with a look.

"Alright, I get it. She's like you. You were just her math tutor?" Bridger continued.

"Actually she's a little over a year older. She graduated at fifteen almost sixteen, she would have graduated at fourteen like I did, but after she finished her biomedical engineering degree she went back for another in forensics. I think it was her way of dealing with her parent's deaths. We were friends," Lucas told him.

"Friends? Must be pretty good friends. You nearly got yourself, Commander Ford and his team killed to save her," Bridger observed, letting the last part sound like the reprimand it was. Lucas' eyes slid away and he looked uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry Captain. I had to do it. I couldn't just leave her there. Yes, we were close," he defended. Bridger nodded in acceptance patting his arm.

"I'd probably have done the same thing but don't do it again," the Captain told him sternly.

"Yes sir," Lucas consented as he fidgeted in the chair.

" Her parents are dead? Was she your girlfriend?" Bridger pressed on. Lucas was beginning to get annoyed, the Captain wanted to know way too much about his relationship with Alexandria. Why was it any of his business anyway? This was dredging up old feelings he'd buried years ago.

"Yeah, they died the same year I started college. Her father was a marine scientist, her mother was a marine veterinarian, they died on a research expedition. Foul play was suspected but could never be proven. Their bodies were never found," he told him, pointedly ignoring the part about her being his girlfriend. Why was he avoiding it anyway he thought to himself, they hadn't been so why did it rankle him to be asked about it? Lucas stamped on the notion until he didn't have to admit anything to himself.

"Well, what happened to her? Somebody had to have noticed she disappeared. I asked if she was your girlfriend," Bridger asked again. Lucas shot him an annoyed look that time. Why couldn't he just let it go?

"No, everyone thought she was dead. She went on vacation right after graduation. I was supposed to go with her but my Dad said no. Her shuttle hit a sea mount on the way from Palo Alto California to Dublin Ireland. The navigational controls malfunctioned, when they crashed, the engine blew and took the shuttle with it. Her body was never found. I guess now we know why. _No_. She was not my girlfriend, we were just good friends," Lucas told him, stressing the word no in the hopes that the Captain would drop that part of the conversation. Bridger gave him an odd look but didn't say anything.

"So she has no family to notify we've found her?" he asked. Lucas looked relieved that was all he asked then shook his head.

"No, she filed for emancipation right after they died. So there's no one. Just her," he told him. Before the conversation could go any further Dr. Smith interrupted them.

"She's stable. You can see her now if you want," she told Lucas and cast a concerned glance at the Captain. Something was not right. Lucas nodded and headed toward the bed as fast as he could without actually running. Bridger rose to follow along behind the doctor.

Lucas took one of her hands in his and squeezed it gently, her skin was cold to the touch, and she was white as a ghost. Her chest rose and fell in a shallow rhythm but she looked like a husk. His eyebrows knit together in worry.

"Is she going to be alright?" he asked Wendy. Wendy looked sorrowful and shook her head.

"I don't know Lucas. The coma is drug induced and until I know more I have to keep her in it. I don't even know if I can wake her up like she is. I've never seen anything like it, her entire brain is covered inside and out with wires, there's a computer chip in her brain stem. I'm not sure what to do. I have no idea how to get her unhooked from this system. And until I do, I can't try anything else. If I do I can tell you she'll die. The chip seems to have some kind of self destruct on it. When she flat lined all we had done is hook neural monitors to her. If what you told the Captain is true, she's been this way for six years. I might not be able to wake her up even if the chip wasn't there. I don't know how she survived the surgery to implant it. The only good news is she's stable for now and the chip doesn't seem to have affected her brain function at all," she explained. She looked very sorry to have to even say it. Lucas gripped Alexandria's hand tighter with both of his and gazed down at her desperately. He couldn't find her only to be told he was going to lose her all over again!

"You have to do something! She woke up back on the resort. If she hadn't they'd have gotten me too. There has to be something!" Lucas demanded fervently. Dr. Smith looked sympathetic and her large blue eyes were wide with empathy.

"I would if I knew what to do Lucas. It's not unheard of for someone to wake from a coma for hours even days and then relapse. We still don't know exactly what someone in a coma experiences. She may have known you were there and acted on it. Your presence may have given her just enough incentive to fight it for a moment. She's in there, I can feel it, but it's this confused muddle almost like she's dreaming. Unless I can get that chip out of her head I can't do anything else," she said in as consoling a tone as she could manage. She knew it wasn't doing anything for Lucas but she tried anyway. Bridger who had been listening to the whole thing spoke up.

"Do you have any idea what could be done? More than her life and Lucas' feelings are at stake here. From what Lucas told me we have to find Dr. Sanborn soon, he has another installation somewhere and God only knows what he's going to do before we find him. We need to know what she knows, if we are going to find him. We haven't been able to track him. Escape shuttles went in all directions when they left and we have no way of knowing which one he was on," he told her. Wendy shrugged looking lost.

"If someone was good enough they might be able to get past the self destruct and disable the chip, that is if I can keep her alive during it," She confessed. Lucas jumped at the chance.

"I can do it!" he said, eyes wide and pleading.

"Absolutely not! What if it doesn't work Lucas? You'll blame your self for the rest of your life," Bridger told him shaking his head.

"It's the only chance she has Captain! Please! I'm the best there is, no one else has a chance at cracking it," he was begging again, seemed he'd begged a lot for one day.

"He's right Nathan. I hate to say it but he's the only one who might have a chance. If we work together we might be able to do it. But Lucas I can't promise anything, even if we get the chip out she still might never wake up," Wendy interjected. The Captain looked apprehensive, he stood there for a moment considering but to Lucas it felt like he was taking forever.

"Alright. I guess we don't have any other choice. But first you get some sleep and eat something Lucas," Bridger assented reluctantly.

"But Captain..." Lucas started to object.

"That's an order," Bridger said and it was obvious he would brook no argument about it. Dr. Smith nodded her agreement beside him and Lucas knew there would be no point in arguing.

"Yes Captain." he replied dejected.


	7. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Lucas had done as he was told, he had blindly eaten the first food he came by in the galley and gone back to his quarters. He had slept like the dead. Even Piccolo coming in from his shift didn't wake him, and Tony couldn't have been quiet about it if he had tried. It just wasn't in his DNA.

By the time Lucas woke Tony had already left again for his next shift. He figured he must have been asleep for the better part of a day. Tony had apparently left him a welcome home present. When he had shaken off most of the grogginess, he found a tray heaped full of sausage, eggs and waffles. He almost passed it up in favor of rushing to the medical bay, then decided he had better eat something resembling a meal or Dr. Smith would just make him eat when he got there. He was well known for his habit of forgetting to eat once he sat in front of a computer screen, and that was under normal circumstances.

Once he had eaten some of the meal, he thought he might as well take a shower or Dr. Smith would have his hide about that too. Besides it would get his blood flowing and keep him working at his best if he was fed, rested and clean. He grabbed a set of clothes and headed for the showers. He rushed through it, dressed and made his way to the medical bay.

When he got there he found Dr. Smith already at work, neural scans, reports, brain schematics, and flow charts pulled up on multiple screens. He thought she was so absorbed in them she hadn't noticed him coming in.

"Hello, Lucas. Ready to get started?" she asked without looking up, she had felt him coming before he had even entered the medical bay.

"Uh, yeah sure. But could I have a few minutes with her first?" he asked. Wendy looked up from her work and smiled kindly at him.

"Of course. I need to finish looking this over anyway. I think I may have some information for you to get started with," she encouraged him. She noticed how he dropped his eyes nervously, fidgeting. "Go on," she urged him and shooed him affectionately.

"Doctor? Could you not listen?" he asked. He wasn't all that comfortable with anyone being that able to know what he was thinking when ever they liked. Wendy looked offended.

"Lucas, you know I don't read someone's thoughts without asking first!" she said exasperated.

"I know that. I just mean, can you not feel the emotions too?" he asked looking up at her through his lashes.

Wendy chuckled knowingly. So that's how it was. "I don't control that. But I solemnly swear to try not to notice. How's that?" she asked.

"Yeah sure," he said shyly after a nervous pause he added "Thanks," and shuffled off to the patient area. Wendy just smiled to her self and went back to work.

Lucas pulled a chair up to Alexandria's bedside and took one of her hands in his. She was still cold, but at least she didn't feel like she was packed in ice anymore. A little bit of color had returned to her face, but she laid there as if in state. Not so much as the flutter of an eyelid when he had taken her hand.

"Hi, Alex. I don't know if you can hear me but I'm going to get you out of this I promise. I'll find a way. I thought you were dead for so long. I've missed you," he stopped and watched her face for any sign of response but she stayed still as a stone. He fought with his emotions and choked on them. This was far different than he had thought it would be. He brushed a stray strand of hair from her forehead before he continued.

"Dr. Smith says that this chip that Dr. Sanborn put in your head has some sort of self destruct on it and that they can't remove it without killing you. So I'm going to find a way to disable it. She says even though you are in a coma that your neural functions are normal. I don't want to loose you again. Please still be in there and I hope you know I'm here. I think you do. You saved my neck back there. I don't know how or why but you did. Wendy says that sometimes things like that happen, don't give up on me yet, just hang in there," he urged her.

He sat with her in silence for a while more, watching her shallow breathing, hearing the steady beeping of the heart monitor, the click and whirr of the breathing machine. The life support system didn't bother him all that much, well it did, but it was what was keeping her alive. It was the bundle of wires running in and out of her head that made his skin crawl. They weren't bundled in one spot either, they ran out of her scalp in various places like a technological Medusa. Her hair only added to the effect, contrasting to the red, green and blue of the wires. How could anyone do this to another human being? Was she in pain? If she was aware of what went on around her, was she afraid? There was so much he wished he could ask her.

Squeezing her hand one final time him got up and went back to Dr. Smith's office. The sooner he got started the sooner he'd know the answers to those questions. If he succeed. Lucas would never admit it to anyone, but he was scared. If he didn't get this right on the first try he would lose her for a second time. She would die and he didn't know if he could forgive himself if she did. He had always been confident in his abilities before now, but he had never encountered something like this. Captain Bridger had been right, if he failed he would blame himself, but there was no other choice. Besides if he didn't try he would blame himself for that too. It was a catch twenty two. At least if he tried there was a chance, if he didn't there was none. He and Dr. Smith were the last hope she and the remaining victims of Dr. Sanborn had.

#***#

"So you ready now? You can take longer if you need to," Wendy said watching Lucas come trudging back into the office. She had kept her word and deliberately blocked him off, but despite it the wave of apprehension and confused emotion coming off him would have been obvious to anyone, psychic or not. He shook his head.

"No I've taken long enough. She's been trapped like that for six years. I'm ready," he said but his voice didn't hold the tinge of self confidence it usually did.

"Are you sure? You don't sound like you are," Wendy probed.

"Yes, I'm sure," he countered, his voice had a hard edge to it, she knew not to press him any further and kept her thoughts to her self.

"Alright. Come look at this then," she said as Lucas rounded the desk and leaned in, looking at the screens. "I've been looking over some very in depth neural scans of her brain. I can't touch the chip but that doesn't mean I can't find out how it's connected to her brain. It looks like the chip is wired into to every major function, even the most basic ones. I don't think this guy ever wanted it taken out. I suspect he did it this way to enable him to control each part individually. I think you need to know where and how it's wired to her brain in order to have all the information to start working, so you are about to get a crash course in applied neurotechnology. The medical and technological communities would have a field day researching this if they ever found out about it. This took some very extensive surgery. Surgery she would have to have been awake for, I can't imagine what that must have been like," she said allowing her self to muse aloud, she really couldn't imagine lying there awake and having someone run wires through your brain like that. Lucas turned green and swallowed hard.

"She was awake when he did this to her?" he asked. A new wave of revulsion washed over him.

"Yes, she'd have to be, or he wouldn't know if he'd gotten it in the right place without damaging anything. Taking it out she wouldn't have to be, you'd just follow the path in back out again," she admitted, Lucas was wavering between looking like he was going to be sick, burst into tears or tear the room apart.

"Is she in pain?" he asked, his voice was deep and tense, as if he were barely controlling himself. Wendy knew that was exactly what it was, it felt like she was being hit by huge waves over and over.

"No, even during the surgery she wouldn't have been. The brain has no pain receptors in it, so it doesn't feel pain. A drug induced coma is done by using high amounts of barbiturates so she shouldn't be in any pain and nothing in her scans or that I can feel from her indicates that she is," she tried to comfort him, and it seemed to at least quell him a little. He had taken to pacing the small space, his hands buried in his hair thinking.

"Alright, gimme whatever you need to give me," he said, the old self confident tinge wasn't there but a fierce determination was. She smiled wanly and handed him a thick book and a stack of reports and scans.

"That's everything I have. If you need any help let me know. I'm not really going to be much use until I can get in there to take the chip out," she told him. He nodded silently, took the offered materials, and stole a pad of paper and a pencil on the way out the door.


	8. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Lucas had spent the last four days studying the materials Dr. Smith had given him, then cross referencing that with all the scans and reports she had given him, then doing it all over again with the chip in Alex's head. He'd had equipment brought down to the medical bay so he could stay by her bedside the whole time, only leaving to sleep and shower, and then only when he was reminded to. He would get so involved he would forget to do either one until he was unconscious on the keyboard if the rest of the crew and Dr. Smith hadn't taken it upon themselves to check in on him occasionally. Tony had decided he was food delivery once he had noticed Wendy was playing waitress and shoving food at him while he worked. Despite that she still made Lucas stop and eat a real dinner everyday. The rest of his meals were portable, pizza, burritos what ever he could eat at his keyboard. When the doctor wasn't playing waitress, you would find her beside Lucas going over the information they had gathered and discussing it, trying to work together to find a way to get around the chip.

Gaining access to the chip hadn't actually been all that hard. He had done that in a day. It was the self destruct mechanism he couldn't find a way around and that's what mattered. It wasn't a self destruct so much as a kill switch. If you tampered with it, it would begin shutting down life sustaining functions one by one in a domino effect that couldn't be stopped, each body system was too interdependent on the others.

Lucas had begun thinking of it like a parasite, this lurking predator attached to her brain stem. After it killed its host the chip would self destruct. If he could get around the chip, the chip's self destruct was to simply fry it self, that would be no problem but the rest had him at his wits end. He had figured out how to disable it but he couldn't find a way to do it without killing her.

Something else he had discovered was that the wires terminated inside her skull, the wires out side her head were plugged in through her scalp, the ports so tiny they weren't even visible beneath the wire sheath and it hadn't shown up on the scans. The other thing he had figured out was what disturbed him the most. Even if he did find a way around the chip's defenses if it was removed that would kill her as well. The way it was implanted made it impossible to remove. She would be stuck with this thing in her head forever. A permanent reminder of this horror. He was at a loss and so frustrated and heartsick he thought he couldn't take it anymore. It looked like a no win situation.

Lucas felt like he was at the breaking point and vented his frustration on Tony when he had brought him dinner. A hot dog, Lucas still didn't see why Tony liked the things so much.

"How's it going?" Tony asked. Lucas looked over at him in frustration.

"It's not. I can destroy the chip and kill her, or I can leave the chip alone and she stays like this. I can't find a way around it. This is impossible! She doesn't even seem to know I'm here, I can't find a way to save her and Dr. Sanborn is out there some where doing the same thing to some one else!" he ranted at him. It was some measure of relief just to say it out loud to someone. Tony patted him on the shoulder in a brotherly fashion.

"You'll get it Lucas. You always do. Just keep at it." he encouraged. Lucas just looked at him helplessly, his eyes welling with tears and threatening to spill over.

"I'm losing her Tony. I lost her for six years, found her like it was some miracle and now I'm going to lose her all over again." he said mournfully. Tony wrapped his arm around his shoulder and squeezed.

"Just hang in there kid, you can't give up yet. You care about her a lot huh?" he replied. Lucas blinked back the tears and stared at the computer screen willing it to show him some solution, any solution.

"Yeah, I do." he confessed. Tony let him go and looked down at him consolingly.

"I know you do Lucas. Keep fighting. It can't rain all the time." he said as he turned to go. Lucas ran his hands through his hair and looked despondent.

"It's not raining, it a damn hurricane." he sighed.

Through it all, Alex still hadn't shown a single sign of response to his presence. She laid in the bed as still as a dead thing. He was beginning to loose hope altogether. When it all finally came to a head he threw the pad full of calculations and figures across the room, his pencil pinging off the wall, books, scans and reports skittering across the floor. The ruckus brought Dr. Smith into the room to investigate. She looked at the mess on the floor and then at Lucas.

"Lucas are you alright? Something wrong?" she asked hesitantly, he was pacing the room like a caged animal.

"Yes something is wrong! I can't find a way around this damn chip, there's no way to disable it and not kill her! Am I supposed to be okay with that!" he raved. Wendy watched him struggle with his frustration and knew he was loosing the battle.

"You've made progress Lucas, look at all you've already found out about it," she encouraged him. He stopped pacing and leaned heavily on a computer console.

"It doesn't matter what I've found out. None of it tells me anything I can use! She's going to die or stay that way forever and there's nothing I can do about it!" he wailed. The doctor moved forward and rubbed his back consolingly.

"I know it feels that way right now Lucas, but you can't give up yet. The answer has to be there somewhere. Why don't you take a break, you've been here every waking moment for days. Maybe a break will give you a breather and a new set of eyes for it when you come back? Take a walk, go play a game. Anything to get your mind off it," she suggested.

"I'm not giving up Doctor. It just seems so impossible. If the answer is there I'd sure like to know where," he said dejected.

"I know. Take a break and see how you feel about things then. I think it would do you good," she reaffirmed. Lucas looked skeptical.

"Is that your professional opinion Doctor?" he asked.

"Yes it is, it's also an order. Take a break I mean it," she said kindly. She hugged him with one arm warmly and left the room.

Lucas milled around the medical lab for a while longer contemplating it and finally gave up and took the doctor's advise. He decided a walk sounded like a good idea so he just pointed himself down a hallway and walked, letting his feet take him where ever they wanted to. Inexplicably he soon found himself at the moon pool. He sat down beside the pool and just watched the water ripples moving gently back and forth, trying to think of nothing, give his mind a rest. It wasn't working. Darwin's silver gray head broke the surface and he bobbed there a moment before chittering at Lucas affectionately.

"Hey buddy. Haven't been to see you in a while have I? Sorry about that," he told him, reaching out and rubbing the dolphin's throat. Perceptive as always the dolphin cut to the chase.

"Lucas worried? Lucas scared?" he asked in the electronic voice the vocodor gave him. Lucas chuckled, so simple but so complex at the same time.

"Yeah I am Darwin. I'm trying to help a friend, and it's not working. If it doesn't she dies," he told him. Just talking to Darwin had a calming affect on him, it did on everyone. He felt some of the tension and kinked muscles relax.

"What is wrong with friend?" Darwin asked curious.

"Well, she has this computer chip in her head that no one can get out, if we try, it will kill her," he paused looking for a way to describe it from Darwin's point of view. "It's sort of like she has this shark in her head and if we try to kill it, it will turn on her and kill her instead," he supplied. He hoped that made sense. Darwin bobbed in the water quietly not saying anything and Lucas wondered if the vocoder hadn't been able to make sense of what he had said.

"Play dead," Darwin said succinctly.

"What?" asked Lucas, now he was confused, maybe there was a glitch in the vocoder. He picked it up and looked at it, looking for some fault.

"Darwin famous shark killer, too many sharks Darwin play dead. Trick them. Sharks go away," he explained. Lucas' brow was knit in confusion.

"What does that have to do with anything?" he asked. Something in his brain had kicked over and wheels were turning but he couldn't quite see it yet.

"Chip is shark, play dead, shark go away." Darwin said simply. Somehow Lucas felt like he was being talked to like a child who couldn't grasp a concept, then it dawned on him what Darwin meant. His whole face lightened and he laughed. He leaned over the pool edge and rubbed Darwin's melon vigorously.

"That's it! That's it! It's so simple! Make the chip think it is shutting down her body functions. It'll never know the difference! Thank you Darwin!" he whooped and dashed toward the medical bay.

"Darwin have fish?" the dolphin asked as he hit the end of the platform, Lucas skidded to a stop and came rushing back. He plucked a fish from a waiting bucket and tossed it to him, before he pelted back out again. Darwin looked rather self satisfied as he leisurely swam back out of the moon pool.

**#***#**

It took Lucas and Wendy another three days to get things set up. Now she was working the same long hours along side him as he had been. Tony had taken on double duty as food service bringing them both meals and now someone had to remind them both to stop for sleep and showers. Lucas was nervous, in fact he was terrified. Today they would try their plan and pray to what ever powers may be that it worked.

They had set up an elaborate system to fool the chip, routing it through the CPU connected to it. A second set of life support equipment mimicked Alexandria's life signs in sync with her real ones. They had copied her's and programmed in a false set to show body functions failing on command, then wired them into the CPU so as they initiated the chip's defenses, it would follow its programming and start shutting down what it thought were Alexandria's real body functions. As it did they would feed it the false failing body functions data and it would think it had done its job. Once it thought it had killed Alexandria it would fry itself.

They would have to pay close attention, despite all they knew they couldn't be sure what order the chip would start trying to shut down body functions, they would have to anticipate it for this to work. Nothing he could find would enable them to actually remove the chip and wiring from Alexandria's brain but she would be free of the link that existed between her and it.

Lucas had a real time schematic of the chip pulled up and controls for the false life support system. It would enable him to watch what the chip was doing while it was doing it. Dr. Smith had a similar set up on the other side of the bed, allowing her enough free space to bring in a crash cart if it came down to it. From there she could monitor Alexandria's real life signs as the chip shut down the false ones and hopefully prevent anything from going wrong on her end.

"Are you ready?" Wendy asked from over the bed. Lucas looked down at Alex, he squeezed her hand and whispered in her ear.

"Okay Alex, here we go." he told her inanimate form then nodded to the doctor.

"Ready as I'll ever be," he said. Wendy looked as nervous as he was. She sighed deeply. If this failed he didn't know what he would do. He wasn't sure he could handle losing her again.

"Then let's do this," she answered and took up her position. Lucas turned back to his console and his hand hovered over the controls. He worked up the nerve to push the button.

"Initiating shut down...now," he said and hit the button before he had a chance to change his mind. The chip was fast, no sooner than he hit the button did the false life support system start wailing, indicating that pulmonary functions were failing. Lucas flicked a switch to start the wind down of the false function and watched as the chip got ready to switch to another system, satisfied that pulmonary function was gone.

"Life signs are holding steady. She's just fine," Wendy reported. Lucas didn't take his eyes off the screen, the chip went for the cardiac system next. The false life support system's wailing got louder and began declaring a flat line. Despite the fact he knew the readings were false the alarm still made him want to panic, but he kept it together and initiated the failed cardiac system sequence.

The chip didn't even notice it was being tricked, it kept right on shutting down life signs blindly. It wasn't all that complex when you came down to it, the most complicated part of the system was the chip's defenses. Satisfied that the heart had stopped the chip moved to brain function.

"Heart rate is steady and holding," Wendy said as she keyed through the life support system, keeping a sharp eye on it. Lucas flicked the switch to start the failed brain functions process and waited. The chip was efficient he would give it that. It had the false brain functions shut down in no time at all. Now it was all up to Doctor Smith and chance.

"Brain functions still at optimal levels." she relayed . Now all she could do was watch as the chip entered its self destruct phase. Before long the light indicating the chip was on line flickered and went out. Lucas quickly pulled up data and checked. The chip was dead. Wendy ran back through Alexandria's real life signs.

"Life signs are holding!" she declared. She smiled across the bed at Lucas and he smiled widely. She extended her hand over Alexandria for his and squeezed it.

"We did it Lucas," she said softly. Lucas nodded happily.

"Now what Doctor?" he asked as they both looked down at Alexandria.

"Now we wait," she said.


	9. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

It had been another three days and Alexandria still hadn't woken up. She had begun to breath on her own almost immediately and that bolstered his spirits some but he still worried she would never wake up. At least now the wires had been removed from her head and she looked like the Alex he knew, not some hideous experiment. Wendy kept telling him they had withdrawn the drugs that kept her in the coma and now the rest was up to her. She explained it could take days, even weeks to wake from even a short term induced coma, Alexandria had been in one for six years. Lucas never had, had any patience. He thought that this was worse than when he had been working to disable the chip. At least then he had been doing something. Now all he could do was sit by and wait. He didn't like it one bit.

Wendy had tried to convince him to go back to his quarters but he wouldn't. He stayed by Alexandria's side, talking to her, telling her all about what his life had been like in the last six years, what had happened in the world, anything he could think of. It had become a stream of consciousness of sorts. All the while this undefinable well of emotion was filling up inside and he couldn't figure out why. He only stopped when he fell asleep, slumped in his chair or his head propped on her bed like it was now.

He was soundly asleep and at first he thought he was dreaming. He kept thinking there was something gently fingering his hair, like a breeze. He ignored it in his sleep thinking he had imagined it but it persisted, slowly he woke groggily. He turned his head and looked up at Alexandria. It took him a moment to realize that it was her who was fingering his hair. He sat straight up in the chair, he couldn't breath or speak for a second, then he grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Praying he hadn't imagined it somehow. Her eyes fluttered open and a weak smile played on her lips. He had wanted to see those green eyes for a week and a half.

"You're alive! You're awake!" he exclaimed ecstatic. She looked detached still, as if she wasn't really sure if what was going on was real or not.

"Lucas are you real? Or am I dreaming?" she asked in a barely audible rasp. Lucas had gotten to his feet at some point, he didn't even realize he had done it. He was grinning from ear to ear, holding onto her hand as if, if he let go it would all have been a dream or she would slip away again. He shook his head.

"No,no. It's me. It's not a dream," he assured her. She looked utterly relieved at the news, her weak smile brightening. Lucas was still grinning like a Cheshire cat. He pulled her into a sudden hug and she huffed. She patted at his back and wheezed.

"Lucas I can't breathe," she managed to get out.

"Oh. Right, sorry," he apologized. He backed off gently laying her back on her pillows.

Neither noticed Dr. Smith leaning on the door frame watching from afar a smile on her face. She thought it would be best if Alexandria had time to adjust with someone she knew present, rather than surrounded by strange medical staff. She could watch her vital signs just fine from here or her office.

"I thought I heard your voice and Sanborn was trying to strap you down. Did I dream that?" Alex asked leaning on the pillows, even awake she still looked like she might blow away in a stiff wind. Lucas had sat back down, her hand firmly clasped in his and she didn't seem inclined to remove it.

"Yes. You did. You woke up briefly. I might not have gotten away from him if you hadn't," he told her. Her expression was far away, she was awake but she wasn't part of the here and now yet.

"I wasn't sure, I thought it was another nightmare. Can.. can I have something to drink?" she said softly.

"Sure. Here," he said. Lucas took his own glass of water from a side table, holding her up off the bed and held it to her lips so she could drink. She drank long and slow. When she had, had enough he lowered her back on the bed again.

"You could hear what was going on around you? When you were...in the coma?" he asked hesitantly. He didn't know if mentioning the coma would upset her, but she seemed to take it for granted.

"Yes. I know I did now. I thought I was dreaming. I don't know how much I dreamed and how much was real. Is this the _seaQuest_? I thought I heard you say something about it," she asked him. He nodded.

"Yes. I'm Chief Computer Analyst on board. I've been on board for close to four years now," he answered her. She crinkled her brow thinking.

"Four years? What year is it?" she asked, she looked disoriented, like things were disconnected and had an unreal quality to them still.

"2022. You were in a coma for six years Alex." He wanted to make everything right _now_, make her back into her old self _now_. It pained him to watch her lying there like she was lost.

"Six years. Say it again," she asked him. He didn't know why but he did it anyway.

"2022." he said again. She shook her head gently.

"No, say my name again. I like it when you say it. I haven't heard anyone say it in a long time."

"Alex. Alexandria Northman. Alexandria Kay Northman," he said for her. She winced and grinned.

"I thought I told you never to use my middle name?" she chided and chuckled softly , leaning further back in the pillows as if she were already tired.

"Yeah, I know," he said smiling softly in return, he squeezed her hand again affectionately. Dr. Smith took the pause in conversation to step in.

"Hello Ms. Northman. I'm Dr. Smith. I'm glad to see you awake. How are you feeling? " she asked her smiling.

" I'm glad to see me awake too. I feel..odd.. things don't seem quite real. Alex please, Ms. Northman just sounds strange to me," Alexandria answered. Wendy nodded, looking over the monitors connected to her, checking them for anything she might have missed before.

"That's normal. Your mind isn't quite sure where it is yet, it had become used to the coma. Since that was your reality for so long it will take a little while for things to seem real to you. But they are I promise," she assured her as she checked her over physically, being sure reflexes, eye dilation and the like were all within normal parameters.

"Alright, I'll just have to take your word for it. I think I'd like to sleep now. I won't dream will I?" Alex asked.

"No, I'll give you something to prevent you from dreaming. It's not something I can give you all the time but at least you can rest in peace for a while," Wendy said loading a hypo-spray with medication. The wave of fear that emanated from Alex was palpable to her.

"You just woke up and you want to sleep? Wasn't six years enough?" Lucas asked exasperated. His incredulous tone covering the fear that if she went to sleep she would slip back into the coma, but Alex was already drifting off.

"Lucas, she will be fine. It's normal for her to be very easily tired. Her coma wasn't peaceful. She needs the rest and so do you. You need to get a real night's rest and that's an order!" Wendy told him firmly. Lucas looked like he was about to protest.

"No buts Lucas. I mean it. She isn't going anywhere and when you come back she'll be ten times better than she is now. I'm going to give her some medications that will help speed her recovery, help restore her muscle tone to something that she can work with. Now rest!" she told him. Lucas looked deflated, but he relented.

"Alright. Alright. What are you my Mother?" he complained. He gave Alex's hand a final squeeze and left for his quarters.


	10. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Lucas had just come into the medical bay to find Wendy going over paperwork and speaking with the Captain. Alex was sleeping quietly in the patient area so he joined them rather than wake her. It had take a few days for Alex to pull her self out of the surreal feeling she'd had upon waking. The few moments of vulnerability when she had woken were the only ones she had shown. Ever since she had clammed up like a steal trap and wouldn't do anything but make small talk with anyone unless pressed, not even him.

Lucas had still spent every moment he could with her and Dr. Smith had encouraged it. Though now she insisted he return to some semblance of his routine. He had to admit he had missed it, but he still worried about his friend too. The looming shadow of Dr. Sanborn out there didn't help.

Wendy had informed Captain Bridger Alex had woken up, but refused to let him question her at all. They had met briefly but any information she might have on Sanborn wasn't known yet. Wendy felt that she still needed time to adjust to her surroundings and felt that any information she might give might be invalid right now.

She was still having a hard time telling dreams from reality, confusing what her brain came up with and things that really had happened. Dr. Smith had explained that she was experiencing a very mild case of ICU psychosis. Something that was apparently not uncommon with recovering coma patients. She had also said that the faster she could be gotten out of the medical bay the better off she would be.

Bridger was anxious to learn anything Alex might know but knew he would have to be patient to get it. He had contacted UEO headquarters as soon as they had gotten Lucas back on the boat and was still waiting for any information they might have. For some reason Admiral Noyce was taking his time with it.

"I don't like this. Noyce is taking far too long getting back in touch. I tried contacting him again but his secretary told me he was out of the office. I get the feeling he's deliberately avoiding me," Bridger said to Wendy as Lucas popped his head around the corner of the Doctor's office. Wendy beckoned him in and he made himself comfortable in the one empty chair.

"Lucas, we were just discussing the situation with Alex. Aside from the issues with this Dr. Sanborn. I think she's ready to move into guest quarters. I thought you might like to get her settled in," Wendy told him smiling.

"That's great! Yeah of course," he said, pleased to hear Alex was about to get paroled from the medical bay. It had its purpose but no one would want to stay there voluntarily. He knew he wouldn't.

"How is she doing?" Bridger asked. Apparently up until Lucas had shown up, they had been discussing her part in the situation not her condition.

"Better, but she has a long way to go Nathan. She will have to do physical therapy and that's the least of her problems. She can walk short distances now thanks to the accelerators I gave her, but the mental progress will be slower than the physical I'm afraid," she said. The Captain nodded knowingly. This was obviously something he understood. Lucas didn't however.

"What do you mean the mental progress?" he asked looking between them anxious.

"Well, we still don't know exactly what this has done to her emotionally. I can read what she projects, but I can't just go rummaging in her head like I'm looking for lost socks. I'll have counseling sessions with her, but you have to remember, the things she was forced to see while she was in that coma. Not just the issues of the coma itself. I've seen soldiers who have seen less become basket cases and I'm not sure yet if it's because she's an exceptionally strong individual or if it just hasn't surfaced yet," she explained. Lucas still looked confused. Wendy sighed and explained further.

"Lucas, think about it. You know what that machine was for. What do you think you would be like if all you saw everyday were thousands of crimes, horrible ones, with no way to stop the images? That's pretty tough to take even on a short term basis, she's done it for six years," she said and looked at Lucas for understanding. He didn't say anything at first, he was thinking about what she had said. Finally he leaned forward in his chair, elbows on his knees and ran a hand through his hair.

"Yeah I see what you mean. I knew what she'd seen from that computer but somehow I didn't think of what it might have done. Not like that anyway," he answered. Wendy nodded solemnly and Bridger sat by listening.

"Don't be surprised if she doesn't act like the person you knew. But you're doing the right thing. Right now she needs someone she can count on more than anything else," she warned gently, Lucas just nodded. He would help her get through it. He had to, she didn't have anyone else. He frowned angrily, the more he thought about what Sanborn had done ,and was no doubt still doing to others somewhere, the more it rankled him.

"Someone needs to catch that son of a bitch," Lucas muttered under his breath.

"Lucas! Don't call anyone that again! But you're right and we will," Bridger chastised and comforted in the same breath. The rebuke sounded more like a formality than as if he had meant it.

"Yes sir," Lucas said softly his eyes sliding away and a half grin tugging at his lips.

"What ever Alex knows would really help," he said mournfully. He really wished she could tell them what they needed to know now. The longer that Sanborn was free to do as he wished, the more people he could hurt in the process.

"Yes it would, but we have to wait for her to be able to give it to us. In the mean time, I'm going to find out what is taking Noyce so long. And as soon as you get her settled you're going to help me. If Noyce won't give us the information we'll get it ourselves," Bridger said looking at Lucas pointedly. Lucas really did grin then.

"Yes sir!" he said with enthusiasm then added. "Careful Captain, you might be contributing to the delinquency of a minor," he joked. Bridger scoffed in mock affront.

"Me? Never. You're nineteen now," he said with a smile clapping Lucas on the shoulder as he exited the office. Wendy and Lucas chuckled after him.

#**#

Lucas had taken the doctor's words to heart about getting Alex settled in. While she slept he had taken the opportunity to spruce up the quarters that had been assigned to her. He had brought her disks from his music collection he knew she would like, filched some of her favorite snacks from the galley that would keep on their own to set out, made sure the bed looked extra comfortable and rounded up her favorite flowers from the hydroponics lab. The orchids sat on the room's coffee table now, the most colorful thing in the room. He wasn't sure exactly what had compelled him to get them in the first place but he knew she would like them. He had often seen them in her room at college. He stopped his roving thoughts before they could go any further.

He couldn't do much about the clothing, he didn't know her size and there were only so many options when you were on an underwater vessel if you hadn't brought your clothes with you in the first place. She would have to settle for the same blue jump suits anyone in need of emergency clothing on the boat did. He had managed to borrow a few movie disk from Henderson he thought she might enjoy. They were chick flicks, He didn't think anything from his own collection would be to her taste right now. His taste ran to action and adventure, normally so did hers, but he thought something light-hearted and happy was more fitting at the moment. When he was satisfied with the result he headed back to the medical bay to help her to her new, and he hoped a bit more homey, quarters.

He heard the commotion before he saw anything. He wasn't two yards from the medical bay when he heard Alex suddenly start screaming in terror. He careened around the corner like he was on hinges to see her flailing wildly in the bed, the thin sheets wrapped around her like a cocoon and screaming,

"No! No! Make it stop! Get away from me!" at the top of her lungs. Dr. Smith was trying to calm her but Alex wasn't even really awake and what ever it was she was dreaming about had her frenzied. Lucas pounded to the bed side and grappled with her for a moment despite Wendy telling him to stay back.

"Alex, Alex it's okay. It's okay. It's just a dream. Listen to me it's Lucas. Listen," he pleaded with her, she struggled still but without the frenzied terror she had before and after a few seconds she stopped altogether, awake and in a cold sweat. She looked back at him wide eyed and panting. Running a hand through her hair she took several deep breaths trying to regain her calm. Lucas kept his hand on one of hers and waited for her to come around.

"Oh God. It was just a dream. Thank God. It was horrible. Just give me a second I'll be okay." she rambled as she tried to get a grip. Finally she seemed to have calmed back down and leaned back on the bed casually. She was trying to pretend it was no big deal.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare anyone. Just a bad dream. I'm fine," she assured everyone. By now several other members of the medical staff had gathered to see what was going on and Dr. Smith looked pitying and disappointed at the same time. Lucas wasn't sure why she looked disappointed, he brushed it off and tried to cheer up Alex instead.

"Dr. Smith said you can move into guest quarters. It's all ready and waiting for you," he said and was rewarded by an elated smile.

"Oh great! Can we go now? I'd like to go now," she urged eyes bright with anticipation. Lucas looked over his shoulder at the doctor for confirmation.

"Yes, but I will need to see you once a day for counseling and monitoring visits and you need to be taking physical therapy daily as well," she said to Alex. Alex nodded vigorously and got up heading shakily for the nearest door.

"Yes, of course. Will do Doctor. Thank you," she rattled on her way, her tone was almost manic. Wendy still looked disappointed but didn't seem inclined to say anything just yet.

"Alex don't you think you should get dressed first? You're in nothing but a medical gown," Lucas observed casually. She really was in a very large hurry to get the hell out of Dodge wasn't she? Alex stopped and looked down at her self then shook her head.

"No, this is fi..." she paused and then turned back to the bed, a smile planted across her face, the smile looked forced.

"Yeah, sure. Of course," she answered. Dr. Smith put a bundle of clothes and pair of shoes on the bed and exited the room taking Lucas with her so Alex could change.

While she changed she took the chance to talk to Lucas. "Lucas, she's hiding from what happened, hiding from the fear she feels. If she doesn't face it soon she's going to regret it. It could even result in a psychotic break. I'm hoping getting her out of the medical bay will help, but it might not. She really needs to talk to someone. She won't open up to me, maybe she will to you," she said sadly.

Lucas' lips formed a thin line as he listened to her. He had found himself more than pleased to have Alex back. They had been close before and the feeling was as strong as it ever was, maybe stronger. The idea that she might be getting better only to flip out on him disturbed him. He had been feeling a great deal of uncomfortable emotions in the last couple of weeks and it unsettled him.

"What makes you think she'll talk to me? Alex doesn't talk to anyone unless she wants to," he told the doctor. That had always been a habit of hers, she talked to whom she liked, when she liked. You couldn't force another syllable out of her if she had decided the conversation was over, the only way to get her to talk then was to provoke a fight. It was one of her less endearing traits. One that had result in more than one argument between them in the past. In fact, it had been one of those arguments provoked by someone else that had led to him meeting her in the first place.

Wendy looked concerned and annoyed with Lucas' response. "Well she can't do this forever, she has to talk to someone sometime. No one can be the rock of Gibraltar forever," she said.

"The rock of what?" Lucas asked, he had never heard that term before. "Yes she can do this forever. You don't know her like I do. It took her six months just to tell me about her dead parents. If the circumstances hadn't been just right I doubt she'd have told me then," he told her. Alex was not one to share her feelings, she turned them inward instead, kept them to herself. He wasn't sure if it was arrogance or insecurity that made her do it. He suspected it was a little of both but you could never be sure with her.

"She's in denial Lucas. Not only is she suppressing her own problems she's suppressing any knowledge she might have on where Sanborn has gone. There are more lives at stake here than hers," the doctor insisted her brows knit together in consternation. Lucas shook his head.

"You tell her that and she won't speak to you for a week," he said.

"Lucas you have to try and get her to talk, if not for her own sake for all the others he must have under his control," Wendy pleaded with him. He sucked in a breath and looked skeptical. "I'll try but I'm not promising anything," he told her.

Just then Alex came wobbly around the corner. Lucas noted that there was a wheelchair by her bed, but she was apparently reluctant to use it. More likely, she had refused to use it to begin with. "Ready?" she asked cheerily. Too cheerily, he knew very well she was never this chipper, Alex was a rather subdued person unless you managed to make her angry. He cocked one eyebrow at her but she ignored it.

"Yeah, ready when you are," he said casting a glance at the doctor who nodded. Her eyes were staring holes into his skull, he nodded back acknowledging what he knew she wanted. He would try but he doubted it would work.

"Right, then let's go. I'll see you tomorrow Doctor. Thank you so much for all you've done," she prattled and hurried for the door. Lucas was left to keep up as best he could.

**#**#**

Outside the medical bay, Lucas watched Alex wobbling hurriedly down the corridor and wondered when she would realize she had no idea where she was going. If she did it didn't look like she was going to admit it.

"Maybe I should lead the way. You don't exactly know where you're going you know," he suggested lightly. Alex swung around suddenly and fidgeted with the buttons on her sleeve.

"Oh right. Of course I don't. I just couldn't take the medical bay another minute it was too much like..." she trailed off and disregarded where the statement had been going. "Lead the way," she said instead and moved to one side to let him take the lead. Lucas did, casting her a concerned glance as he passed.

A trip on the maglev and a good walk later they finally reached the guest quarters. Alex was flagging steadily but she had refused help twice already. She was determined she could and would do it on her own. Lucas knew better than to push the subject. Stopping in front of the door he pushed it open and stepped to the side like a valet.

"Your accommodations madame," he joked, hoping she would relax a little. It did at least get him a chuckle.

"Does this mean you expect a tip?" she asked as she stepped past him into the room. He laughed, that was the Alex he knew.

"Nah, On the house, next time though..." he shot back as he followed her in, nearly running her over in the process. She had stopped only a foot or two in the door and was staring at the orchids. He only saw her face for a second before she turned away from him and leaned on a chair for support. He could have sworn her eyes had been brimming with tears.

"Alex, are you okay?" he asked moving behind her and laying a hand on her shoulder. He thought he heard her sniffle. She shrugged him off and moved away.

"Yes I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" she asked defensively. She kept her back to him and added "Thank you for the flowers they're beautiful."

"I thought you would like them. Was I wrong?" he asked cautiously, afraid if he said the wrong thing she would clam up on him.

"Yes, I love them. Thank you," she said more brightly, trying to pretend nothing was wrong. She had meandered across the room by this point and was looking at her reflection in a decorative mirror. She fingered the crudely shorn strands thoughtfully.

"I need to get my hair trimmed, this is horrendous," she said casually. Lucas hung his head and sighed. There was quiet for a moment before he steeled himself for what he was about to do, he didn't want to but he couldn't see any other way.

"Okay, that's it," he declared. She didn't turn from the mirror she was attempting to finger her hair into some kind of order.

"Huh?" she asked confused. "What's it?"

"I mean that's it. Stop pretending nothing is wrong," he said sharply. She wasn't going to just sit down and talk, he would have to force it out of her and he knew it.

Alex turned and looked at him quizzically. "Nothing is wrong, the room is lovely Lucas really. I'm sorry if you thought I didn't like it," she offered. He huffed and rolled his eyes.

"I'm not talking about the room and you know it! Alex you are going to have to talk about it sooner or later," he said sternly. She didn't bother insulting his intelligence by pretending she didn't know what he meant, her face had drawn taut and her lips were pressed together tightly.

"No I don't," she said her voice dropping an octave.

"You were abducted, put through brain surgery awake, experimented on, placed in a coma for six years and forced to see God knows what the entire time. Yes you do. Talk to me please Alex. You always could before why should now be any different?" he begged, he had moved across the room to her, taken her crossed arms in his hands gently, pleadingly. She hadn't pulled away this time at least.

"No. I don't," she reaffirmed, her voice had an angry edge to it now. He was getting through to her then, little by little.

"Alex please, you can't deal with this on your own, no one could," he asked again, she shook her head, her face had hardened into a mask.

"No," she said simply and pulled away, walking to the couch and sitting down casually. She was trying to ignore him. Well he wouldn't let her. He sat down beside her, she scooted down away from him, he followed. He tried a different tactic.

"One of those kids at that facility could be yours," he suggested and waited for her reaction. She shot him a startled glance and quickly covered it up again resuming that stubborn mask of hers.

"No they couldn't. I don't have any children. I'd know if I did," she argued. Lucas pressed her further hoping she would crack and talk to him.

"Oh and how would you know that? Did you ask Dr. Smith if it was a possibility?" he asked. Her frown deepened and her eyes narrowed. He realized he was right, she hadn't asked. It might not have even occurred to her yet.

"No I haven't," she confessed tersely, she was refusing to look at him now, looking across the room at the wall.

"If you know anything about were Sanborn might be, please tell me. Even if you won't talk about what happened. Think about those children, all the other people he must have trapped the same way you were. Even if one of the children isn't yours. Please think about that," he urged. She sighed in annoyance. The annoyance agitated Lucas. He knew good and well she wasn't cold-hearted but this was just selfish.

"I don't know where he is. I'm sorry," she said quickly, too quickly.

"Have you even thought about it?" he asked. She shot him a look that could kill but stayed put, reverting her gaze to the wall again.

"Yes and I don't know," she said firmly.

"I don't think you have thought about it. I don't think you want to," Lucas told her, his voice serious and concerned. She crossed her arms and just looked at him, her eyes blazing.

Lucas knew she would either talk or blow up. He hoped she would talk. She sat there not speaking, he didn't think she could speak. Apparently he had hit on something. She finally got up and paced the room, Lucas let her, waiting for some sort of response. She paced for a long time before she finally rounded on him, Lucas braced himself.

"No, I don't want to think about it. You don't get it do you?" she said, her voice low. He had to strain to hear her.

"Then tell me," he said simply, his hands spread in entreaty.

"That's just it Lucas. I don't want to tell you. I don't want to tell anybody. Not even myself. You have no idea. You can't possibly imagine the hell I've been through!" her voice was rising, the pitch getting higher. He quelled the desire to go to her and hold her. He didn't know where that had come from, he stamped on it like he was smothering a flame.

"You have to, sooner or later you have to Alex. You can't keep it bottled up forever. It's going to eat you alive," he reasoned. She didn't seem to be in the mood for reason.

"I can't Lucas. I can't. I can't take it. Don't you see? I just can't!" she was nearly yelling now, her pacing was frantic , like she was trying to escape something no one but she could see. He got up and crossed the room confronting her face to face, stopping the incessant pacing. She refused to look up at him

"Yes you can! Talk to me Alex. You've always talked to me even when I have to pry it out of you. Do you think I wouldn't at least try to understand?" he said his voice soft and low. She finally looked up at him, tears in her eyes. Lucas sucked in a breath and his heart clenched. Without thinking about it he started to wrap his arms around her, like he had wanted to before and for a moment she didn't resist him. Almost as if she wanted to just lean on someone, find solace in another person. Before he could really envelope her in his arms though she suddenly pulled away, blinking back the unshed tears.

"Please leave," she said softly, her back to him again. Lucas threw his hands up in exasperation.

"So that's it. Just leave?" he asked, he was at the end of his rope . He didn't know what else he could say.

"Yes, leave. I want to be alone," she said with forced confidence. He tried to get her to turn and face him but she just moved further away.

"Like hell you do. I know you Alex," he said wishing fervently he could comfort her some way, but how do you comfort someone who doesn't seem to want it?

"No, you don't Lucas. Not anymore. Go. I mean it," she said her voice cracking.

"Alex," he pleaded one last time.

"Get out!" she yelled. Lucas felt angry and hurt at the same time. He turned and stalked for the door.

"Fine," he said as he stepped through the threshold into the hallway. He had turned to pull the door to, but she beat him to it slamming it shut. He heard the wheel inside spin heavily as it locked.

"Just think about what I said okay?" he called back through the door.

"Go away Lucas!" she yelled back. Then there was silence, he wouldn't get anything else out of her, not now. He stood there looking crestfallen. It took him a moment to realize he wasn't alone in the hall way. His abrupt exit had stopped someone's progress. He looked over to see Tony Piccolo standing there wide eyed.

"You two love birds fighting?" he asked in his typically sarcastic tone. Lucas felt anger and embarrassment rise in him, his face flushed scarlet.

"We aren't love birds," he shot at him.

"Could have fooled me," Tony answered, shrugging. Lucas scowled and pushed past him.

"Mind your own business Tony," he growled as he stalked past leaving Tony in the hall way muttering to him self.

"Huh, Go figure," he said to himself as he continued on his way.


	11. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Lucas spent the rest of the day helping Captain Bridger obtain every piece of information he could find on Ryan Sanborn. Apparently the captain had tried again, more than once, to get in contact with Admiral Noyce and still been rebuffed. So Lucas had proceeded to get the information he wanted. Illegally of course.

The work had let him bury his thoughts and feelings for a while. He didn't know if he wanted to rush back to Alex's quarters and beg her to forgive him, throw his arms around her and just hold her for hours. Or if he wanted to ignore her until she was ready to talk and apologize. He didn't know why he was feeling like this, they had always been close. But while they were good friends he had never felt like this. Why did he suddenly feel this overwhelming need to touch her, comfort her, make everything alright? His thoughts began wandering as he tried to figure it out, but the Captain drug him out of his contemplation.

"Lucas are you paying attention?" Bridger said. He had asked the same question four times and Lucas had sat there staring into space like he didn't hear him.

"Oh, Yes Captain. What was the question?" Lucas asked sheepishly, fidgeting with his computer keyboard to avoid being seen turning red again.

"Where is your head Lucas? I asked you what you had found on Dr. Sanborn," he repeated shaking his head at Lucas and assuming it was the result of him spacing out. Lucas shoved his thoughts to the back of his mind and began telling the Captain what he had found.

"Well, I found out a lot, but all it does is raise more questions. Dr. Sanborn graduated magna cum laude from Harvard at age twenty five with doctorates in biomedical engineering, psychology and parapsychology. He was considered one of the brightest minds in his field at the time," he said pulling up a screen that reflected what he was saying on the computer.

"Was?" Bridger asked. Lucas nodded.

"Yeah, apparently he believed that human behavior could be controlled through technological means for a better world. The idea has its merits but he took it too far. He was excommunicated from the scientific community in 2010 and his licenses revoked, when he tried to prove his theories by experimenting on his own research team against their will. Not only did it violate human rights laws all of his test subjects died. After that he just sort of dropped out of the public eye, by 2012 he'd disappeared altogether. Everybody speculated he killed himself or went off to some remote place unable to handle the embarrassment of his failure," Lucas told him. Bridger looked contemplative for a moment.

"So he's done this before? Or at least something like it? He was never tried for what he did?" Bridger asked. He couldn't understand why the man wouldn't have been. Those experiments would have been major violations of several human rights laws alone. Lucas shook his head again, he knew the captain was not going to like what he was about to tell him.

"No, not even a charge. He just went off and no one bothered to do anything about it. And I think I might know why," he explained leaning forward to pull up another file. Bridger was quiet listening.

"At first I didn't think anything of it. His parents aren't really anybody, but I got to checking and found out his grandfather was. Ryan Sanborn's grandfather is real estate czar and salvage industry tycoon Kenneth Jordan. When he died he left the company to his daughter, Kathryn Jordan. When she and her husband Dr. Gregory Sanborn died in 2011, the company fell to her son," Lucas told him. Bridger looked floored.

"Jordan Industries owns half the eastern sea board. Not to mention all the underwater salvage they do. No one noticed that Ryan Sanborn owns it now?" he asked incredulous. Lucas looked up at the captain apprehensively.

"Oh they know. The UEO leases any number of land plots and facilities from them, plus they sell salvage to them when they happen to have it. If they were to lose the land holdings they have it would displace hundreds of thousands of personnel at the least," he continued, Bridger's brow was taut and his jaw set in anger.

"So this is political. They let him get away with it just to keep from losing money? "

"Looks that way Captain. I did get a full listing of all Jordan Industries properties in real estate and salvage, but there are thousands of them. There's still no way to tell where Dr. Sanborn might have gone. He could have gone to any one of them," Lucas finished leaning back in frustration. Bridger shook his head.

"No, I don't think so. I'm betting he's underwater. It would be to easy to be found out on land," He said.

"Well that still leaves me with three hundred and seventy five listings, all over the world," Lucas said with a lost shrug.

"Keep trying, look for anything that might help, find out what is being shipped into and out of all of them if you can that might give us some idea. Maybe you can get Alex to look them over with you see if anything rings a bell."

"Uh, Captain. I don't think Alex really wants to talk to me right now," he admitted.

"Oh why's that? I thought you two were good friends." Bridger ventured.

"We are. We sort of had a disagreement," he confessed keeping his eyes on the computer so he wouldn't have to look as sheepish as he felt.

"Uh huh," the Captain observed. Before he could ask anything else the comm system beeped and Lt. O'Neill came over the speaker.

"Captain, you have a call from Admiral Noyce," he advised. "Put him through on a private channel Mr. O'Neill," the Captain replied and turned to the vidlink in Lucas' room. The vidlink flickered on and Bridger stood looking back at Noyce angrily.

"Nathan where are you?" Noyce asked looking around the captain at the banks of computers and general mess that was Lucas' quarters. Lucas popped his head into view briefly in answer.

"Oh. I see," Noyce observed with disdain. Bridger cut him off.

"You have been deliberately avoiding me Bill," he accused. Noyce looked affronted.

"No I haven't Nathan, I've just been very busy," he argued

"Yes you have. You took so long getting back to me about Dr. Sanborn I decided to find out about him myself and now I know why," Bridger shot back. Noyce puffed up in anger.

"Nathan you'd have to have gotten in to sealed files for that," he told him looking around him at Lucas accusingly.

"Oh no don't look at him. I'm the one who told him to do it Bill. Is money really worth that much to the UEO? That they'd let Sanborn kill who ever he wanted so they wouldn't lose a little?" he demanded. Noyce's face screwed up into a scowl.

"No Nathan it's not like that!" he defended again but Bridger was on a roll now.

"Yes it is. Don't try that with me Bill. I know better. That's exactly what this is. It's about politics and money and the people involved in this can go to hell. You knew he'd done this before and yet you did nothing," he raved at Noyce.

"Nathan, we had no way of knowing he was still conducting experiments. You can't even be sure he still is and all the test subjects he had at El Orquídea Jardines are dead," Noyce shot back.

"You should have tried him when he did it the first time. What about the people he killed? And no all them aren't dead Bill. One survived and she's on my boat," Bridger railed. Lucas was sure anyone within two decks of them could hear the captain's angered voice by now. Noyce looked surprised and a little afraid.

"Who is she?" he asked suspiciously. Bridger shook his finger at the screen.

"Afraid she might tell Noyce? I don't think I'm going to tell you who she is," he informed him. Noyce sat forward glaring into the vidlink.

"Nathan, you stay out of this. That's an order, this is a very sensitive political matter, let the UEO handle it," he yelled at the captain.

"Oh like you handled it the first time. I don't think so. Court martial me," he spat. Noyce started to protest but Bridger hit a button and disconnected him without another word. Straightening his uniform he made to leave then turned back briefly.

"Good work Lucas, keep looking we'll find him. And try to talk to her. Couples quarrel she'll get over it," Bridger said as her stepped out.

"Yes sir, Captain we aren't..." Lucas began to protest but Captain Bridger had already swung the door shut behind him with a clang. Lucas sighed reluctantly and went back to work. Why did everyone insist they were a couple?

**#***#**

Lucas had slept the night away and gotten back to work first thing the next morning. When Lucas finally took a break from trying to track down Sanborn, he decided to take a walk and before long he had meandered down to sea deck. He thought he might ask Darwin to play a little football. He was surprised to find Alex there struggling to get a wetsuit on, Darwin was no where in sight. She didn't notice him she was so busy fighting with the neoprene fabric. The way she moved caught his eye and he didn't enlighten her, instead he stood near by leaning on a bulkhead quietly watching.

She had trimmed the ends of her hair so that now it fell in golden waves to her shoulders, rather than a tattered mass. Her green eyes were bright with frustration against her pale skin. The black and dark blue of the wet suit, what of it she had managed to get on over her bathing suit, just added to the effect.

He thought she was beautiful and he didn't know why he hadn't noticed it before now. Was that what had been bugging him for the last couple of weeks? That he didn't see her as just a friend anymore and hadn't realized it? Was that what everybody else was seeing and he had been too head strong to see? She broke him out of his revere with a frustrated growl. Lucas couldn't help but laugh and that gave him away. She snapped around wide eyed.

"Oh very funny Lucas. Ha ha watch the poor land lubber try and fit herself into a wetsuit that despite saying it's her size has got to be four sizes too small." she groaned. Lucas grinned dashingly at her and stepped forward.

"I liked your hair longer." he said suddenly, not sure why he had said it. But it was true, when he had last seen her before she had disappeared it had fallen nearly to her waist, he realized now he had loved the way it looked. Alex looked exasperated.

"I'm turning myself into human pretzel and all you can think of to say is you liked my hair longer?" she squeaked. The look on her face was so disbelieving and comical he laughed again. She screwed her face up into a scowl.

"It's not funny!" she insisted.

"Yes it is. Here let me help," he offered looking the mess she'd gotten herself into over.

"For one thing you don't zip it until you have everything else in it," he told her humorously.

"I figured that out, but now it's stuck. I can't get it to unzip. You try it if you think you can," she shot back. He wasn't sure he exactly wanted to try unzipping clothing off her, that was altogether too suggestive. But trying to get her arms through the sleeves was going to be near to impossible otherwise. Gingerly he took hold of the pull at her throat and tugged. It didn't budge, he tried it again with more force and it came loose. He was about to let go, but she placed a hand over his, stopping him. Lucas looked up from the zipper at her face, afraid to meet her eyes least he give himself away.

"Lucas about earlier. I'm sorry. I did think about it, but I just can't talk about it yet. I will but just not yet. I'm sorry I was such a jerk. I don't mean to be," she said. She tilted her head slightly to catch his eyes, being a full head shorter than he was it wasn't very hard. He glanced away and stepped back.

"It's okay. I know you didn't mean it," he said shoving his hands in his pockets. Then a thought occurred to him.

"What are you doing down here anyway?" he asked.

"Oh. Well Dr. Smith did say I need physical therapy still and this was one of her suggestions so I thought I'd try it. The water doesn't look all that deep, should be about right," she answered.

"Want me to join you?" he offered. She smiled brightly at him. A genuine smile and nodded. "Yeah. I'd like that," she said. Lucas smiled back at her.

"Okay just wait right here and let me change," he told her grabbing a wet suit off a hook and disappearing behind a wall partition. He was half way into his suit before she spoke again.

"Lucas?" she called. "Yeah?" he called back fighting his way into it.

"The nightmares are the worst you know. I wake up screaming in the middle of the night. I keep seeing all these images of all these horrible things. The surgery, murdered children. Wars, Horrible crimes against humanity, individuals. Things no one has been able to do anything about. The only way I know to deal with it is to block it out," she admitted in a sudden rush, as if, if she didn't say it now and quickly she never would.

Lucas zipped up his suit and peered around the corner, she had finally managed to get hers the rest of the way on. His hands went instinctively to where his pockets should be but there were none so he let them drop awkwardly. "I'm sorry Alex. I wish I knew something to do to make it stop," he said. She smiled wanly at him.

"I know. You can actually. Just... be patient with me. I know I must be the most hardheaded person on the planet. I just... it's really hard for me to open up. That's all," she said shyly.

"I know. Always have. I've known you for years remember? I'll be here. I told you that already," Lucas offered. She smiled at him again. He loved the way she smiled, when it was genuine it lit up the whole room.

"I know. Thank you," she said and paused, walking along the side of the pool aimlessly. "I asked Dr. Smith about the children. Whether or not any of them could be mine. She said no," she told him. He nodded.

"Well at least that's good news," he said, he was nervous without a reason to be and picked at the hem of his sleeve absently.

"Yeah," she answered. An awkward silence ensued. Finally he couldn't take it anymore. "Ready?" he asked. She nodded and turned toward the pool. Lucas saw it an instant to late. A puddle of water on the edge, her foot hitting in and slipping sending her flying backward into the pool. She sank like a rock then came up sputtering and struggling. He realized she couldn't swim and dove in after her.

Saving a struggling drowning person wasn't as easy as it looked. You had to keep their head above water without letting yourself drown at the same time. While they tried their best to send you both back under. When he had her head above the surface he tried to calm her. Once he had gotten his footing he had just stood up, the pool wasn't all that deep for him, but she was just short enough she couldn't get a good purchase.

"Alex. Alex. I've got you!" he shouted. It took her a moment to realize she wasn't sinking anymore and she stopped struggling. She sputtered a bit more and laughed nervously."I thought the water was a little shallower than it is."

"I didn't know you couldn't swim," he said keeping a firm hold around her waist. In the heat of the moment he hadn't realized he had both arms around her and hers had gone around his neck instinctively. Her body was pressed so closely to his he could feel her heartbeat. It tied his stomach in knots.

"I thought you knew. Didn't you notice I never went to any of the pool parties in college?" she asked, tossing her wet hair behind her shoulders, she had to tilt her head to look up at him.

"I just thought you were too busy studying or didn't want to go," he answered. She smiled.

"Well there was that and the fact I can't swim. Never learned. Yeah I know parents were marine scientists you'd think I would," she told him. He chuckled and started to let her go but she clutched at him when he did so he held on.

"No, no don't let go please," she pleaded eying the water warily. "I won't," he promised, he really didn't want to anyway. He liked how she felt resting there. He liked her arms around his neck. She was still looking up at him, right in the eye and there was something there, this look he couldn't place. He grinned nervously but didn't look away.

"I could teach you," he said softly. Her eyes were still locked with his. "I'd like that," she whispered back. Their faces were drifting closer together by what seemed like no force of their own, they were so close their lips were almost touching, he could feel her breath, it sent chill bumps all over his skin. "Okay," he muttered.

The word made his lips brush hers, suddenly he had slipped one hand under her hair cupping her head and he was kissing her. At first she stiffened not expecting it and he almost pulled away, but then one of her hands was twined in his hair and she was returning the kiss, deepening it. She relaxed into it, his heart was pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears and her heart beat matched his. When they finally broke apart it was reluctantly, slowly. He didn't think he could breathe. They floated there, both of them not breathing. It was Alex who finally broke the silence.

"I've waited years to do that," she said breathless. Lucas didn't think his ears had heard her right. He shook his head in disbelief.

"What?" he asked his voice low and husky.

"I said I've waited years to do that," she repeated. Lucas still wasn't sure he understood, he couldn't be hearing her right. Years? To what? Kiss him?

"I don't think I understand," he said unable to believe what he was hearing. She chuckled softly, her hand still twined in his hair, he realized his was still twined in hers.

"Well since you want me to be honest and confide in you...Lucas, I've had feelings for you for years. You don't think I invited you on vacation, just because I was bored and wanted company?" she asked. Her voice held a tinge of surprise. Lucas' mouth was moving but no words were coming out. She searched his face for some sort of recognition. Finally he managed to force sound out.

"I didn't know. Why didn't you tell me?" he whispered. Why hadn't she? They had know each other for three years before she had disappeared, why never let him know she cared about him?

"I was afraid to. I was afraid to let myself admit it. I loved my parents, they died. It seemed to follow at the time, if I admitted to loving you I'd lose you too. At least as friends I'd still have you in my life." she confessed. Lucas held on to her, keeping her from sinking with one arm, he ran his free hand through his sodden hair and tried to think of what to say.

"I don't know what to say. Love?" he blathered. Alex's face fell.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything," she choked, disentangling her hand from his hair. Lucas stopped her, keeping it there and shook his head vigorously.

"No, no that's not it. I just didn't. I just...Oh God," he couldn't come up with words to express himself so he did the only thing he could think of, he pulled her close and kissed her again, fiercely. When he pulled back, he searched her eyes a moment.

"Is that answer enough?" he asked. She smiled at him nodding, and they both broke into laughter. They simply enjoyed each others company for a while in silence, one's lips finding the others when the moment was right. Finally they abandoned the pool and sat on the deck .

Lucas had his back braced against a bulkhead, his arms wrapped around Alex as she leaned against his chest. It was like that one moment had broken barriers nothing else could have. They had been talking for a few hours about the past, about what had happened, her fear of Sanborn and the horrors she had seen while she was in the coma. It had opened a flood gate and years of dammed waters were pouring through it. When Lucas thought they couldn't possibly talk anymore Alex dropped another bomb on him. She tilted her head back and looked up at him.

"Lucas... I know where Sanborn is."


	12. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Alex sat at the table in the ward room. Lucas was beside her and wondered if at any moment he might have to pin her to the chair to keep her in it. She was edgy and nervous, the press of crew gathering in the room was beginning to weigh on her and it was showing. Captain Bridger was opposite them busy getting everything in order.

"You okay?" Lucas whispered in her ear. Alex swallowed hard, her eyes darting from one person to another.

"I will be...I think. I'm just not used to so many people all wanting to listen to and talk to me all at once anymore. It's a little overwhelming," she whispered back, her voice quavering.

Lucas gave her a bright smile and slipped a hand under the table, entwining his fingers with hers. He hoped no one noticed. Some how he still didn't want to admit to anyone that he and Alex were more than friends. Not after all the ribbing he had already gotten about it.

"They won't bite. I promise. Well Tony might," he joked. Alex cocked one eyebrow at him and managed a weak grin.

"Very funny," she said. Lucas feigned confusion.

"I'm not joking! Tony might really bite!" he insisted.

"Uh huh. And which one is Tony?" Alex asked genuinely grinning now. Before Lucas could point him out, Tony had stepped forward, having heard them. He held out his hand to Alex and hesitantly she took it with her free hand, he shook it firmly and flashed a lopsided smile at her.

"I'm Tony and you are...gorgeous," he introduced himself. Lucas was shooting him dirty looks but he didn't seem to notice. Alex's eyebrows shot up into her hairline.

"Well thank you. I'm Alex. Nice to meet you." she managed cordially. Tony kept right on going and Lucas was fighting the urge to tell him to take a hike.

"I don't bite...unless you want me too," he flirted. Alex chuckled at that, relaxing a little since the first person in the room to talk to her hadn't made her want to hide under a rock.

"I see. I, uh..." she fumbled for a comeback and blushed. The conversation came to an abrupt halt as Bridger called for order and everyone who hadn't already found a seat did, if there was one available. Tony plopped down in a chair beside Alex and smiled flirtatiously. Lucas fumed silently, but Tony didn't know there was something more than friendship going on now, Lucas had said there wasn't after all.

"Alright, I'd like you all to meet Alexandria Northman. Some of you may have seen her before but she hasn't had the opportunity to actually meet any of you. So Ms. Northman if you will allow me to introduce my crew. Commander Ford, my executive officer, Lt. Brody tactical and weapons specialist, Lt. Henderson chief of engineering, Lt. O'Neill communications specialist, Mr. Ortiz Sensor chief. You already know Lucas and Dr. Smith. And I see you've already met Mr. Piccolo," he rattled off.

Each nodded in greeting as they were introduced and Alex nodded back nervously. Dr. Smith gave her an encouraging glance and smiled sweetly at her from across the table. She had intended to take the seat Tony had usurped. Bridger picked up the conversation again.

"Ms. Northman, has information on where Dr. Sanborn has gone and may have more information about what we will be facing. I have to tell you now that the UEO has told us directly not to pursue this. If you don't want to risk court martial, you may choose to leave now, no strings attached. I won't ask you to do this against your will," he said. There was dead silence as he waited for anyone to leave if they wanted to, but not a soul moved. In fact they were all looking at him as if he should have known better than to even ask.

"Captain, I think I speak for all of us when I say we all know what is at stake here. We know what Dr. Sanborn has done and that someone has to do something about it even if the UEO won't," Commander Ford said into the quiet.

"Very well. Thank you all for your willingness to help in this mission. It might not be sanctioned but it definitely has to be done, especially after all Ms. Northman has told me. Alex you have the floor," he said sitting down and fairly glowing with pride for his crew.

Alex looked at them all nervously, she didn't bother getting up to speak, she shoved her hand more firmly into Lucas' under the table and unrolled a sea chart on the table with the other. It helped that all present seemed invested in this already, enough to risk their careers. Lucas could see it gave her some small measure of confidence.

"Okay then," she said swallowing hard before going on. "This is where we will be going," she pointed to a spot on the map. "The Kermadec Trench, depth 10,047 meters. Sanborn has an installation here easily three or four times the size of the one at El Orquídea Jardines. He has at least twenty other scientists and psychics there, not counting the children. I'm not sure how many children there may be. I do know that getting any of those people out of there alive is going to be a challenge, Lucas tried to save six and only left with one. I know the location, about how many other victims he has and a rough estimate of the personnel he would have there. He should have at least two personnel for every victim not counting the children' attendants and any security personnel. Other than that I have absolutely no idea what we are getting ourselves into," she confessed. Everyone in the room had their eyes on her and she wanted to hide under the table away from their questioning eyes. Lucas squeezed her hand reassuringly and gave her this endearing look. Several members of the crew noticed it and smiled behind their hands. Lucas tried to pretend he hadn't seen it.

"What I don't understand is how he's managed to escape detection for so long," voiced Henderson.

"Well, El Orquídea Jardines was supposed to be nothing but scrap after the 9.0 sea quake that destroyed it ten years ago. This installation is situated in a very dangerous area, there are a number of volcanoes near it and so most of the research has been done in short excursions, no one may have gone far enough in to actually find him. The rest the UEO chose to ignore," Bridger explained.

"That explains why he hasn't been found, but why haven't any other psychics known about the ones he's taken. I still can't figure that out," Dr. Smith said. Alex piped back up.

"I can explain that, I don't have the technical knowledge to tell you what to do about it, but being hooked into the damn thing for six years gave me a very up close and personal view of what it does if not how. The chips in the scientists and the psychics are slightly different. The psychics can receive information but they can't send it out, they are stuck in their own heads if you will. That's why no one would have known about them. They can't send for help. In fact the only ones he ever toys with are the scientists, the psychics are kept unconscious and drugged from the moment they are taken to be sure they won't be able to call out to anyone. Other than the ability to block psychics from sending the chips are the same," she explained, Lucas saw her actually relax markedly talking about it, maybe talking to people who were actually going to do something about this was an outlet for her he thought. He certainly hoped so.

"How can he do that to another human being. It's just wrong," O'Neill said shaking his head.

"Sanborn isn't normal Lt O'Neill that's why. He believes that any sacrifice, any horror is worth it if the end result is for the good of humanity. The bad thing is his system works. He really thinks what he is doing is right and he'll stop at nothing to accomplish his goals. He doesn't care how he gets there as long as he does," Alex told him. O'Neill shook his head again in disbelief.

"Okay assuming we get in, and we can keep Sanborn from repeating what he did at El Orquídea Jardines, how do we get the people out of there? I saw what was going on when I went over there after Lucas. How can we possibly save them all?" Commander Ford asked.

"We can't. There's no way to, the only way I could find to beat it was to work from the end of the chain and work back to the first and try and save as many as I could. Not if a self destruct is initiated again. Given enough time we could use the same method we used to get Alex out of it. But we have to have that time," Lucas supplied.

"Assuming we get in easily enough, then all we need to do is take Dr. Sanborn into custody and keep him from destroying the installation. That would give you enough time wouldn't it?" Brody asked.

"Yes, it would," Lucas admitted. Alex looked so hopeful he prayed it would be that easy, from experience he knew it probably wouldn't and from the looks the others were giving each other they did to.

"What about defenses? Do you know anything about what kind of artillery we might be up against?" Commander Ford put in.

"No, I'm afraid I don't Commander. I assume they would have pretty standard defenses at the very least. But Sanborn isn't one to risk his project. There's no telling what kind of modifications he might have made," Alex said shaking her head ruefully.

"Which leaves the question how do we get in without being seen and how do we get those people out without getting them killed?" Bridger summed up. He was leaning on the end of the table looking each one of the attendants in the eye as he spoke. "So any suggestions people?"

"Well I'd say we can't really make an assumption until we know exactly what we're dealing with. We can make plans all day but until we know what we are up against we can't be sure if any of them are even viable," Brody pointed out.

"I was afraid you'd say that," Bridger sighed. "I had the same notion and I don't like it. Looks like we are flying blind. Alright, Commander get us there and we'll figure it out then. Dismissed,"

"Yes sir, Commander Ford replied and disappeared from the room.

Alex suddenly stood up like she'd been bitten. She still had such a tight hold on Lucas' hand he couldn't have gotten it free if he had wanted to and right now he wanted to. Everyone still in the room was looking at them. He felt blood rising to his face in a steady stream. He tugged on Alex's hand trying to get her to sit back down.

"How long before we get there?" she asked, the urgent need for an answer oozing from her words.

Lt. Henderson was the one to provide it. "Well if I had to guess without plotting a course, at least three days maybe five," Alex nodded her head in thanks but said nothing. Lucas stopped trying to get her to sit back down, her eyes were filled with something desperate and by now there was no point. Who ever had seen them, had seen them. There was nothing he could do about it now.

"In a hurry to get there Alex?" Bridger asked kindly.

Alex answered in a low, strained voice. "No, Captain. Anything but."


	13. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Once out of the ward room, Lucas had managed to convince Alex to have dinner in the galley with him. She had resisted at first, wanting to remove herself from the press of people but Dr. Smith had even agreed it was a good idea. She thought it would help if Alex started to reintegrate with society. There wasn't much society to be had on a deep submergence vehicle but the galley was the place to find some of it.

"Well what do you want to eat?" Lucas asked her as they stood in line waiting to pick from the day's offerings. Alex was busy chewing her thumbnail and glancing around like she might jump at her own shadow. He squeezed her shoulder companionably to reassure her. "Relax, it's just dinner. How many times have you eaten in a cafeteria? It's no different than it ever was."

Alex took a deep breath, forced a smile on her lips and pulled her thumbnail out of her mouth for a moment. "You're right. Of course, you are. I'm just nervous. That's all," She told him, before resuming chewing her thumbnail.

"Well, don't be. Decide what you want to eat yet?" he prodded her again. She took a moment to look over the menu tacked behind the counter before she decided. "I think I want the meatball sub with provolone cheese, fries and tea." she rattled off. Lucas shook his head at her, she had ordered almost the same thing for lunch anytime they had eaten in the college cafeteria. "I'll have the roast beef sandwich with tomato, lettuce, chips and a soda," Lucas told the server. It wasn't actually beef, it was really a protein replacement made to look like the real thing, but somehow roast protein sandwich just didn't sound right even if Lucas had never had beef in his life.

"Coke," Alex said grinning despite herself. Lucas grinned back catching on.

"No it's a soda," He corrected her.

"Still a coke to me," she teased.

"Okay carbonated beverage. I'm not the one who was born in Georgia, ya hillbilly," he teased back, sharing an old joke with her. She picked up the thread, seeming to forget for a minute that she should have been tense and nervous surrounded by people.

"Don't start yankee. I was born there I didn't grow up there," she retorted, taking her tray off the line and waiting for Lucas to get his.

Lucas laughed at her and eyed her tray briefly. "Ya know you're going to die of a heart attack one day from eating that," he picked. Alex took the ball and ran with it.

"Not if I develop a synthetic heart first," she quipped as Lucas lead the way to an empty table, chuckling. They had just gotten sat down good, when Tony decided to put in an appearance. Lucas shot him a look that said _go away_ and he knew Tony saw it, but he made himself at home anyway_. _

_ "_Heya Lucas. Mind if I join you?" he greeted as he sat his own tray full of something that resembled a hero sandwich down with a clank.

"Yes," Lucas informed him coldly but Tony ignored him, speaking instead to Alex.

"So besides being beautiful, what do you do for a living?" he asked smiling at her. Alex sat down her drink and gave him a pained look for the bad pick up line. She had relaxed again though and took it in stride. "I'm a biomedical engineer with a specialty in genetics," she said mildly. Lucas wanted to reach over the table and flip the tray of food into his face. Being a flirt was his nature but this was just pushing it.

"Fascinating. Where ya from?" he asked. Alex leaned back in her chair and looked at him oddly. "As if you would know what that is. She's from Georgia," Lucas answered for her, trying to get Tony's attention off Alex.

"I'm not stupid Lucas. Let the lady answer for her self. A southern belle eh?" Tony said turning the conversation right back to Alex. Alex rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"I was born in Georgia I grew up in Florida. I am _not_ a southern belle," she corrected him.

"Why do you want to know anyway?" Lucas shot at Tony angrily. Tony gave him a reproachful look. "Just making conversation," he remarked wiry. Lucas glared at him. "You aren't making conversation with her, you're hitting on her."

Tony shrugged nonchalantly. "So what if I am, she's a single woman, let her tell me if she doesn't want me flirting with her," Tony shot back. "Tony. Stop it," Lucas warned, his eyes flashing with subdued venom. No, Tony didn't know he and Alex were a couple now, but he was just pushing it like he was trying to provoke an argument.

"Hey now, wait just a minute," Alex tried to get a word in edgewise but the two of them were on a roll now. It had become an issue between the two of them and Alex might as well not been there at all.

"Or what Lucas?" Tony taunted. Lucas could not figure out why he was pushing his buttons. It wasn't like him to take it this far and it was really beginning to tick him off. Lucas got up and took Tony's arm trying to get him to step into a quiet corner rather than make a scene, but he refused to move. "I'm not going anywhere. You got a problem you can say it right here, right now," he challenged. Lucas gritted his teeth, by now half the galley was watching them. "Leave her alone," he hissed, trying to keep his voice low enough no one could hear what was being said. Alex had thrown up her hands in frustration. She kept trying to get a word in and was being ignored.

"Leave her alone? Why's that Lucas? You said you're just friends. She's fair game," Tony prodded leaning around him to speak to Alex. "Hey doll, how do you feel about poker? Want to play a game? My quarters? Just you and me?" he asked laying on his most suave voice. Alex started to reply and Lucas cut her off again.

"She is not fair game," Lucas growled at him. Now it wasn't half the galley staring at them it was everyone in the place. He wondered why one of the ranking officers hadn't stepped forward to split them up yet. Maybe they were too rapt by what they were seeing or thought things hadn't gotten to the point were someone needed to intercede yet.

"Little jealous Lucas? Why don't you let her decide if she wants a date with me," Tony provoked. Alex didn't bother to try and reply this time she just sat there shaking her head.

"She doesn't want a date with you, trust me," Lucas said coldly, trying his best not to blow up.

"Oh and why's that? I think she does. She hasn't said no, now has she?" Tony needled at him. That did it, Lucas had opened his mouth and yelled it at him loud enough for the whole galley and probably half the deck to hear before he could think better of it. "She's mine Tony. She's my girlfriend. That's why!" Tony put up his hands in surrender and backed away. He smiled at Lucas, winked and took himself out without a word. Lucas followed hot on his heels, wondering what exactly Tony's problem was. Alex was left sitting alone, a deep, bashful shade of scarlet, smiling discretely from ear to ear. The whole galley was whooping and clapping behind them.

"What the hell was that?" Lucas demanded once they had made it far enough down the hallway no one could hear them as long as no one yelled. Tony stopped and turned around grinning. "I wondered when you'd admit it."

"Admit what?" Lucas asked truly confused.

"That she's your girlfriend," he said simply, that ironic grin still plastered on his face. Lucas narrowed his eyes and advanced on him.

"You did all that, just to get me to say she's my girlfriend?" he couldn't phantom why he would have bothered going to such elaborate lengths to do it.

"Well, yeah. Girls like that sort of thing. I thought she could use that. Ya know her guy fighting for her and all," Tony explained, crossing his arms and looking smug.

"What? How could you even know? I told you we were just friends!" Lucas said exasperated. Tony rolled his eyes."Oh come on Lucas. How could anyone not tell? She doesn't take her eyes off you. Not even when she was in the medical bay. You've been wandering around like a lovelorn puppy for weeks."

"No I have not! Really?" Lucas questioned and defended himself at the same time. Tony laughed and clapped Lucas on the back. "Yeah. Really. I thought it was about time you admitted it to yourself. Because you didn't look like you were going to do it on your own," he told him. "She's cute. I like her. Hang on to that one," he added and left Lucas standing in the hallway trying to sort it all out in his head. Every once in a while gill boy got it right.

**#***#**

Lucas was still reconciling with what Tony had told him as he returned to the galley. Alex was finishing off her sandwich in the company of Lieutenant Henderson and Lieutenant O'Neill, with whom there was a heated debate going on about the pros and cons of interactive movies versus regular formats. Apparently it was two to one for interactive and Lieutenant O'Neill was losing. Now it was Alex who ignored him as he wedged himself back in his seat and ate his sandwich while listening to the heated exchange.

"What? So you are saying that people who like interactive movies over regular ones are shallow?" Henderson quipped at Tim. Tim looked rather uncomfortable being cornered by two very opinionated women.

"No, I'm just saying that it takes a lack of imagination to prefer them," he argued, stuffing a bite of food in his mouth.

"That doesn't mean they lack imagination, maybe it means they'd like to experience it first hand instead!" Alex put in leaning forward on the table to emphasize her point.

"Lack of imagination," O'Neill insisted. Alex huffed at him.

"I'm a biomedical engineer. I created a synthetic pancreas. Are you going to try and tell me that didn't take imagination?" Alex retorted in a disbelieving voice. Henderson nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I'd say that took some creativity. I've already had this argument with him and was informed my tastes were vapid," she said.

"Vapid?" Alex repeated scornfully.

"Mmmhmmm," Henderson confirmed and sat back in her chair her arms crossed. Lucas had a feeling he had just walked into a gender war. O'Neill didn't have a chance and Lucas was not about to stick his nose in it half way through.

"Yes vapid. Inventing a synthetic pancreas takes science not imagination. Your tastes in movies is just so provincial," O'Neill spat in annoyance. Alex looked like her jaw was going to fall off in shock.

"Provincial? I'm provincial? My tastes are not provincial they just happen to be more adventurous than yours!" Alex retorted cramming the remainder of her meal on her tray and rising from the table. Henderson rose with her, they both looked each other in the eye and said "Men!" stalking off together to dump their trays in the trash receptacle. Lucas pretended he hadn't heard.

"I don't think I like her," O'Neill muttered under his breath. Lucas grinned, he wasn't far enough away for him not to hear it. "She grows on you." O'Neill looked doubting as he checked his watch and got up. "I have to be back on shift. See you later Lucas."

"Me too. If that's not too vapid," Henderson jabbed at Tim. Tim just rolled his eyes as he left. "It was nice talking to you Alex. I hope we can do it again sometime," Lonnie said as she turned to follow him. Alex smiled at her and looked more like herself than she had since Lucas had found her. Dr. Smith was right social interaction had been a good catalyst for her. "You too Lonnie. Better hurry wouldn't want to be so provincial as to be late," she joked. Lonnie snickered and waved good bye. Lucas polished off his meal and looked up at her. "Done? Ready to go?"

"Yes. Ready when you are," she said her attention again on him . "Alright, I'll walk you back to your quarters," He told her as he rose and dropped his own tray into the trash receptacle.

**#**# **

"Making friends already I see," Lucas said as they made their way toward her quarters. Alex chuckled. "Well he started it. I swear," she protested as she reached out for his hand. This time he took it without reservation. Tony was right about that, everyone else already seemed to know, if they hadn't they certainly did now after the fiasco in the galley. So there was no point in denying it, he might as well enjoy it.

"Uh huh. Some how I doubt that," He replied mildly. "Okay so maybe I started it. But provincial!" she confessed. He just laughed. "Well I'm glad you are at least talking to people, coming out of that shell of yours," he said changing the subject. "Yeah, at least about somethings," her face darkening briefly as they stepped onto the maglev. Lucas relayed their destination automatically to it and pulled her down beside him. He stole a kiss as they rode, ending it just before the maglev stopped and announced its thanks for riding and opening the doors with a hiss. They walked quietly the rest of the way, he liked the way her hand felt in his and found himself tracing gentle circles with his thumb on her hand as they went. Freed of the fear of discovery, he found even in that short trip that he liked being open about it. The walk ended too soon as they came to her quarters.

"Listen I'm sorry for the mess in the galley. I don't know what got into me. Tony thought he was proving a point," he apologized. To his surprise Alex smiled up at him "Well then I'll have to thank him the next time I see him. Don't apologize, I kind of liked it. Some primitive part of me thrilled seeing you stand up and stake your claim, like that," she said turning a dark shade of scarlet. "Really?" he asked slipping his arms around her waist. She automatically threaded hers around his neck, her fingers trailing down the back of his neck made the hairs stand on end.

A soft, deep sigh escaped her lips and he sucked in a breathe, lowering his head close to hers. If she had thought the argument in the galley was primitive this was down right primal. "Well, I suppose I'll see you in the morning," He said regretfully, he thought he was going to run out of water rations in the showers quickly. At least he wouldn't be wasting energy, they would all be cold.

"I suppose so. I had a good time at dinner, despite the briefing earlier," Alex said her face darkening again. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Not really. I'm afraid to go to sleep. I still have nightmares," she admitted, casting her eyes down. His heart clenched in sympathy. "I wish I could make them stop," he whispered, he was cheek to cheek with her and her breath was tickling his ear. "I better go," he breathed as he tried to step away but she refused to let go of him.

"Lucas, don't. Stay please," she pleaded. He looked down into her eyes, fighting with himself. One part wanted to stay and comfort her, make sure she could sleep without the nightmares for a change. Another had its own agenda for staying, a third thought this was probably a very bad idea. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea."

"I don't think I can take this alone anymore. Lucas please?" she begged, pulling him closer. He took a deep breath, swallowing his indecision. "Okay," he muttered, his mouth covering hers. She fell into it, one hand fumbling the door open as they disappeared inside, still wrapped around each other.


	14. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Morning came in like a spring breeze. It was nearly afternoon by the time Lucas woke, Alex wrapped in his arms. Despite the passion and desperation that had led him in here in the first place, they had spent a quiet night. They hadn't even talked very much. Instead he had held her in his arms, stroking her hair like a child until finally she had slept. More than once he had come awake when she stirred, a nightmare coming on, and soothed it away with soft words and a gentle caress. She would sigh peacefully and continue slumbering. She slept still and he didn't have the heart to wake her.

So he had slipped silently out of the bed and was now sitting in a oversized chair drinking a cup of coffee. He watched her shift in her sleep, but she remained undisturbed, so he contented himself with watching her. Something about last night had solidified something he hadn't known needed it. Yes, he was perfectly willing to admit his relationship with her now, the jibs and jokes be hanged. He hadn't realized that in only a couple of weeks, during most of which the object of his affection had not even been conscious, he could fall this hard or this far. He had expected it to be fiery, wild, fierce, that's how it had always felt before. Instead he found it peaceful, quiet and strong. It had hit him during the night, when he had soothed her out of what threatened to be a very bad nightmare. He had watched her slip back into restful sleep, watched her lashes on her cheek, the way her mouth curved, the way she had turned into him and nestled her head in the crook of his neck. He was in love with her, he had always carried something of a torch for her, but they had been younger then. He had thought her dead and relegated her memory to a sweet remembrance, one he had not bothered to share with anyone not even Captain Bridger. This was no crush and while it might be quiet and peaceful in its own way it terrified him.

He wasn't sure what to do about it either. Say something? Do something? Let what ever happened, happen? He decided that the last was probably the best option for the moment. He would cross that bridge when he got to it. He didn't get a chance to contemplate it further, Alex opened her eyes slowly blinking at him through the diluted light of the room and smiled.

"Hello sleeping beauty," he said smiling back. She chuckled sleepily at him as she sat up on the bed. "Now that would make you my prince wouldn't it," She observed through a yawn. He laughed back, making his way to the coffee pot to get her a cup and refresh his own. He took a moment to resent that only high ranking officers and guest quarters got the luxury of an in room coffee pot. He handed her the cup and settled on the bed beside her. She took it carefully, blowing on it to cool it before she took a sip.

"Thank you for last night. I haven't slept that well since I came out of the coma. Not even with the dream repressing drugs Dr. Smith gave me," she told him softly as she cradled her cup. Lucas draped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek.

"Anytime," he told her. She surprised him by going wide eyed. "Really? Are you serious?" she prattled. She sounded so serious Lucas didn't know whether to laugh or be concerned.

"Yes, of course I am," he responded seriously. She looked up at him with limpid round eyes. He thought she looked more like a lost child in that moment than the woman he was falling in love with.

"Will you stay then? I mean just for a while? Until this whole mess is over with?" she pleaded with him. Lucas felt his eyebrows shoot up. Now that he hadn't been expecting, and it could lead to a whole slew of problems. The least of which was his dwindling ration of cold, very cold, water for showers. But then again, it wasn't as if he wouldn't thoroughly enjoy the experience and she wanted him here so why not?

"Alright. I'll need to grab somethings from my quarters first though," he told her and she sighed with relief. Was she really that desperate to have him nearby or was it just the fear of being alone? At the moment he guessed they were both one and the same. He wondered what Tony would think about having the room to himself for a while. He would probably come back to the place covered in posters of the latest swimsuit models. He might even have to win back his bunk again. Alex yawned again using the coffee as a weapon against morning grogginess. Lucas chuckled at her.

"I think we both need showers before either of us will be worth anything. How about we do that, I'll get my things and meet you back here?" he suggested. Alex nodded at him and he kissed her forehead, he would have left it at that but she caught his head in her hands before he could pull away. She kissed him once passionately and let him go. She was smiling happily at him when she did and he couldn't help but give her that lopsided grin of his as he made his way out the door.

Lucas had alterior motives already. Her asking him to stay had both thrilled him in some way he couldn't quite describe and worried him. If he did he was afraid she would shut herself off in her quarters, making it her own little world with him alone and ignore the rest of the human complement on the boat. She needed the social interaction. Only in the galley had he seen her revert back to the quick witted girl he had known in college. Solitary confinement, self induced or not, twisted her into a vulnerable, terrified, and reclusive semblance of herself. If he let her she would ignore the world in favor of the safety of her quarters and his company. He was not about to let her do that.

He grabbed a quick and as promised, cold, shower. Got himself dressed in fresh clothes and made arrangements for what he couldn't carry from his quarters to be brought to hers. Arrangements meaning he asked Dagwood to do it. Dagwood had of course been perfectly willing to help a friend but his moving things out of his room to hers had resulted in the expected barrage of questions.

"Lucas is leaving?" Dagwood asked pensively over the top of a server tower. Lucas couldn't help but grin at him. Dagwood wasn't one to beat around the bush, it was something he had always liked about him.

"No, just a change in residence for a while. I'm going to stay with a friend for a while and help them recover from a very bad experience," he assured him. Dagwood looked relieved. Lucas shouldered the last duffel bag he could carry and not topple over and they began the trek back to Alex's quarters.

"Dagwood is glad Lucas is not leaving. It is good that you are helping a friend. Can Dagwood help Lucas' friend too?" he said. He carried the server tower like it didn't weight more than a lunch box to him. Lucas could not have budged it alone if he had tried.

"I don't know Dagwood. That's up to her. She's been ambiguous about meeting new people lately," he replied, head half down against the weight of the bags.

"Ambiguous?" Dagwood queried, not knowing the word.

"Yeah, it means undecided. She has been a little afraid of meeting new people. She spent a long time alone in a very bad place. She's afraid to meet people she doesn't know I think. Even if she won't admit it," Lucas explained, navigating a corner like a top heavy horse cart. Dagwood didn't seem to notice his clumsy stumbling.

"Is Lucas' friend a Dagger? Many Daggers spent a long time in a bad place," Dagwood observed. Lucas was panting by now, he thought maybe he should have made two trips with the bags instead of one.

"No, My friend isn't a Dagger. She was in coma for six years, because a very bad man thought it would be fun to experiment on her brain. She's not the only one. He has others. That's where we are going, to stop him if we can." Lucas huffed. They were in the home stretch now.

"Oh. Lucas' friend should not be afraid Lucas and Dagwood will help her," Dagwood said with certainty. Lucas was mildly relieved when they reached the door to Alex's quarters. With no free hands he kicked it lightly to let her know he was there. Hopefully she would be back by now.

She was, the door swung open with a hollow twang, and she stood there dressed and showered. At first she didn't take notice of Dagwood, apparently she found the sight of Lucas standing there looking like a bad imitation of a storage rack rather amusing.

"I would have helped if I had known you were going to move half a lab in here," she chortled. Lucas maneuvered his way in the door and she stepped back to let him pass.

"I do have help," he replied, setting down the duffel bags. Dagwood followed him in and then Alex finally saw him.

"I see that," she said quietly. Lucas pointed at a empty corner that approximated a space large enough for the server tower.

"Over there should be fine Dagwood," he said, looping an arm around Alex's waist. It was a natural gesture for him, one he had dropped into without realizing it came without thought and kept her from bolting at the sight of Dagwood. Even if she had no prejudice against Daggers, if she even knew what a Dagger was, he was still imposing due to his height and size.

"Alex, this is Dagwood. A friend of mine. Dagwood this is Alex," he introduced before Alex could come up with some reason she had to suddenly be elsewhere. Dagwood set the server tower down carefully and turned, holding out his hand to Alex. Alex took it hesitantly. Dagwood shook it so gently if her hand had been a feather he wouldn't have rumpled it.

"Hello Dagwood," Alex managed to croak out. She was visibly trembling with fear. Lucas guessed she had heard of Daggers before, but apparently she had only heard the bad. Dagwood released her hand and looked like a hurt child.

"You don't like Daggers, you are afraid of me," he observed in a voice that was deceptively small for a man of his stature.

"No, no I'm not afraid of you!" Alex protested weakly. Dagwood and Lucas both gave her a look that said they knew better.

"Alright. Yes, I'm a little afraid of you. It's not you in particular. You have to understand," she argued. Lucas pulled her closer, twining both arms around her waist. He rested his chin on her shoulder, it seemed to help the trembling. Dagwood looked rather confused again.

"I know what a Dagger is. But, you see I was kept in a place for a long time, where I was forced to see only the evil they have done. The evil any human, Dagger or Monotone, does. It's not you I'm afraid of really. Lucas wouldn't call you a friend if you were a bad person. I just... I haven't seen the good side of people in a very long time," she tried explaining. Dagwood seemed to be considering it, as she leaned further back into Lucas' arms. He wasn't sure if she was seeking shelter or comfort there at the moment.

"Then you should see it. Nobody should have to be like that," Dagwood announced confidentially and without giving anyone a chance to move he had thrown his arms around both Lucas and Alex, embracing them in a tight hug. Alex was half wheezing when he let go. She looked bemused and flattered at the same time.

"Thank you Dagwood," Lucas said, he wasn't really sure what to say.

"I'd say that's a start, anyway," Alex replied a smile blooming on her face. Dagwood was so innocent sometimes. Lucas forgot he could have that affect on people. He couldn't help but smile at them both. Dagwood looked rather pleased the hug had garnered him a smile out of Alex.

"Well, I still have some things to move in here. But I want you to meet someone first," Lucas said to Alex, taking her hand and guiding her out the door.

"Someone else? Now what?" Alex wondered.

"Dagwood come too?" the Dagger asked hopefully. Lucas looked at Alex for the answer. He didn't want to over burden her with strangers. He would let her decide. She smiled at Dagwood.

"Yeah sure why not? The more the merrier. Besides you never know I might need saving from who ever Lucas intends to introduce me to," she quipped as they started down the hall way. Dagwood noticed Lucas was holding Alex's hand as they walked and innocent that he was decided he should too. He took her other hand and both Lucas and Alex chuckled at him as they made their way three abreast down the corridor.

"Why would you need to be saved from someone Lucas took you to meet?" Dagwood asked. Alex and Lucas looked at each other and laughed.

"What?" Dagwood asked completely confused.

**#**#**

Their journey led them down to the sea deck. Alex and Dagwood stood on the edge of the pool waiting on Lucas to explain what he was up to. Alex looked rather confused and Dagwood was busy watching the water ripple back and forth in the pool.

"We're going swimming?" Alex asked perplexed. Lucas chuckled as he picked up the vocoder and started hitting keys. "Just wait and see," he told her. She crossed her arms and looked put off.

It took a few more minutes for his guest to arrive. Darwin announced himself with a wuffle of expelled air and a trill. "Alex I'd like you to meet Darwin. Darwin this is Alex the friend who had the shark in her head," Lucas introduced. Alex gave Lucas a befuddled look.

"Shark in my head? Alright so I suppose we have been formally introduced. I like dolphins, they are incredibly intelligent but, uh, I don't think he can talk back Lucas," Alex said mildly. Lucas merely grinned at her ironically.

"Hello Alex," Darwin said through the vocoder. Alex looked from the dolphin to Lucas and back again. "He can talk? How did you do that?" she demanded in amazement. She had snatched the vocoder and was turning it over and over trying to determine if this was one of Lucas' pranks.

"Yes, Darwin talk," the dolphin answered her. Lucas was too busy grinning from ear to ear at the look on Alex's face to say anything. Alex turned to Darwin and leaned over the edge of the pool.

"How? That's amazing," she asked him. Darwin chattered at her. Lucas thought it sounded more like he was laughing.

"Lucas help Darwin talk. Box tell people what Darwin says, box tell Darwin what people say," he told her. If it weren't for the perpetual smile all dolphins possessed Lucas thought Darwin would be grinning at her. Point in fact he probably was in his own way. Alex was gazing back at Lucas with a great deal of academic envy.

"This? What is it? You designed this? That's incredible! My parent's would have had kittens. They would have loved to have gotten their hands on this," she prattled at him.

"It's a vocodor, it acts more or less as a translator between Darwin and us. I thought you might appreciate it," Lucas explained.

"I do. Talk about a break through. I always believed dolphins and other cetaceans were as intelligent as humans. Maybe more but the idea that now we can actually communicate. That's amazing," Alex blathered. She was no longer looking at Lucas, she had returned her attention to Darwin. Dagwood had taken a seat on the pool edge and was rubbing Darwin's head. Darwin looked like he was particularly enjoying it. Lucas settled beside Alex and twined his fingers in hers.

"I'm pleased to meet you Darwin," she said to him. Speaking to him as a peer rather than an animal. Lucas had expected as much, you didn't grow up the child of marine scientists and take dolphins for stupid animals.

"Shark gone from Alex's head?" Darwin asked. Alex looked at Lucas to tell her what he meant.

"The chip. Darwin is the one who gave me the idea for how to get around it," he explained.

"Well then I owe you a very large thank you. Yes the shark is gone. I'm just stuck with ghosts now," she said. Darwin bobbed his head at her, moving closer and out from under Dagwood's hand. Alex reached out and rubbed his melon gently.

"Ghosts can't hurt. If Alex doesn't let them." Darwin advised her. Lucas quirked an eyebrow muttering, "That's a matter of opinion." Darwin tilted his head at him and gave him the equivalent of a glare.

"Yes it is. But I hope you're right Darwin. I hope you're right," Alex responded. The conversation might have gone further, but Commander Ford passed by.

"Meeting Darwin?" he asked from behind. All three of them craned their heads to look at him.

"Yeah. I thought Alex might appreciate it, since her parents were marine scientists." Lucas told him. Ford grinned and looked them both up and down. His eyes fell on their joined hands.

"Uh huh. I just thought I'd let you two know, we should be at the Kermadac Trench in two, two and half days," he said mildly, the bemused look on his face still stuck there. Lucas and Alex both ignored him. Though Alex looked decidedly unsettled, by the grip she had on his hand Lucas didn't think it was embarrassment. Dagwood was blissfully ignorant to the subtext of the conversation, he was busily whispering to Darwin.

"Thank you Commander. Though there isn't anything any of us can do until we actually get there." Lucas observed.

"No we can't. You are right about that. But I thought Alex would want to know. Let's just hope we know what we are dealing with when we do," Commander Ford said seriously. It didn't last long, he broke into a grin again, reached forward with both hands, tweaked both their cheeks and laughed.

"You're so cute together!" he squeaked at them in his best impression of an overly-affectionate aunt and promptly exited the area before either of them could say or do anything. Lucas and Alex exchanged glances and rolled their eyes sighing. Apparently the crew were altogether too happy to have something or someone to gossip about. But it didn't end there. Darwin had noticed their interlocked hands too.

"Lucas and Alex mates?" he quipped at them. They both turned to look at him slack jawed. Dagwood, was holding the vocoder and grinning widely. Alex and Lucas both just stood there and could think of nothing to say.


	15. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Lucas and Alex spent the next two days together. He had managed to move everything he needed to work anywhere but the bridge into her guest quarters, much to her chagrin. She had spent forty five minutes raving companionably about the mess the place was now in and how did he live like that? Lucas had just laughed at her. She was notorious for her little friendly rants to those who knew her. The crew had begun joking that they must be attached at the hip when they thought they weren't looking.

Wendy had even managed to recruit Alex for more than psychology appointments and therapy sessions. She had convinced her to help her with a minor project she had been working on, to develop a biological treatment for plasma rifle burns. Lucas had been more than happy to tag along, helping where he could and working on his own routine assignments when he was inexplicably locked out of the conversation.

He found getting two women scientists together in the same room, working on the same project, resulted in the same phenomenon that occurred when two women were busy gossiping. Usually about men. Lucas didn't begrudge them it though. Alex seemed to let go when she worked and well she needed it. Medical research wasn't really his forte' anyway.

Lucas awoke the morning of the third day with someone rapping on Alex's door. He tried to ignore it, Alex seemed to be capable of sleeping through it, she hadn't even budged. After the fifth round of knocking he decided whoever it was wasn't going away unless someone answered them. Carefully disentangling himself from Alex's limbs, he hauled his protesting body out of the bed and stumbled for the door. His hair was going every where and he must have looked like someone had sent him through a wind tunnel he thought as he pulled the door open.

"What?" he barked running his hand through his sleep rumpled hair. Tony stood on the other side of the door and said absolutely nothing. He was too busy looking past Lucas at Alex and back again. He broke into a large grin.

"Uh huh. Alright Lucas!" he congratulated him, clapping him on the shoulder. Lucas knew very well what he was congratulating him on and ignored it.

"What do you want?" he groaned at him. Tony was still gaping.

"Oh, Captain Bridger called down to our room, when I told him you weren't there he told me to find you. Now I see why you weren't. I knew you had hied off somewhere after I saw half the room gone. I don't blame you, I think I'd prefer her quarters too," Tony rambled. Lucas considered head slapping him, but thought better of it.

"Alright, alright I know your position on my choice of sleeping accommodations. Why is Captain Bridger looking for me?" he asked, trying to force him to get to the point.

"OH! We're there. Or almost. Captain wants you both up on the bridge so we can all get a look at what we are dealing with," Tony answered, the message he'd been sent to deliver had become an after thought.

"We'll be right there," Lucas said and before he could launch back into his take on Lucas' assumed conquest he shut the door in his face. Let Tony assume what ever he liked, it would be all over the boat within a matter of minutes anyway with Tony as the messenger.

**#**#**

Lucas and Alex arrived on the bridge within thirty minutes. They would have arrived sooner, but Lucas had to very nearly physically take Alex there. She was still terrified of Sanborn and what he might do to her if he could get his hands on her again. Lucas had tried to explain that she was safe on the _seaQuest_ and there was no way he could. It didn't seem to help much. She spent the whole trip to the bridge muttering Darwin's words under her breath. "Ghosts can't hurt you unless you let them."

He hated to see her so torn up and afraid. He wished he could make it go away and knew he couldn't. How could he do that when he couldn't even bring himself to tell her he loved her too? It wasn't that he couldn't show it, he had no problem with that. But somehow saying it out loud made it concrete and unchangeable. He didn't want to change it, but he had never fallen like this. He felt like someone had shoved him off a cliff with no warning and no safety gear.

He stuffed his contemplation to the back of his mind as the bridge doors chimed and slide open. Alex walked beside him, hand in hand, like a mechanical doll. Every step seemed to take every bit of will power she had. Despite the leers and snickers he knew he would get he dropped her hand and slide one arm around her waist instead, hoping the added contact would offer some measure of comfort. Let them gawk. He didn't care anymore anyway.

Bridger turned to face them as they came in. He looked them both over so briefly someone who didn't know him might have missed it. But his expression betrayed no mockery only a light-hearted amusement and what looked oddly like approval. The other crew members weren't all so benevolent. More than a few were grinning at them with knowing expressions on their faces. Alex was too busy trying to keep it together to notice. Lucas shot a look that could kill at the back of Tony's head.

"We're closing in on the perimeter of the trench now. Ortiz has WSKRS out searching for the installation. We should have a visual with in a minute or two," Nathan relayed, "Are you okay Alex?" he asked, while everyone else might be focused on the latest bit of rumor, he was more interested in what was going on here and now. Alex nodded weakly and swallowed apprehensively.

"I'll be fine," she whispered. Nathan didn't look like he was entirely sure he believed her but he nodded anyway, patting her on the shoulder reassuringly. Wendy cast her a warm glance from across the way and smiled encouragingly. Alex managed a nervous smile back. Dr. Smith simply shrugged at Lucas and held her hands up as if to say what can you do? He knew exactly what she was referring to. Of course she would know more than anyone what the rest of the crew was thinking.

"I've got it Captain," Ortiz announced.

"Let's see it," the captain ordered. What popped up on the screen left everyone present speechless and every thought of gossip fled. They stared back at an installation situated on the rim of a dormant volcano and the place was armed to the teeth. It looked more like a military base outfitted for the next World War, not a research facility. Drones swam back and forth ready to fire on anything that moved and there were so many gun turrets attached to the installation it looked like a huge metal sea urchin.

"Oh my God," Commander Ford voiced for them all.

"How are we supposed to get past all that?" O'Neill asked feebly from his station. Bridger looked rather unsettled himself.

"I have no idea. We damn sure can't just move in. He'll just blow us out of the water. Ortiz make sure we stay out of sensor range. Lucas can you tell if you can gain access to the weapons system? Maybe we can disable it," he mused aloud. Ortiz busied himself ensuring they were out of sensor range. Lucas released Alex with a regretful glance and vaulted up to his own station, settling into the chair and scanning the screen in front of him. What he saw was not reassuring.

"No Captain, not without him knowing I'm doing it. He has that place buried under so much digital security he'd know I was there the second I tried," he answered him. Alex hadn't moved, she stood stock still where he had left her, her eyes riveted on the screen.

"Alright can we disable it manually?" Bridger asked. Henderson shook her head. "No Captain, we would have to get within sensor range to do it."

"There has to be a hole in his armor somewhere. Everybody makes one mistake. We just have to find it," Commander Ford insisted. When Alex finally managed to speak, her voice was so clouded with emotion Lucas didn't even recognize it.

"Oh no Commander. I wouldn't count on that. You're dealing with a man who will have thought through every possible scenario. He doesn't make mistakes," she forced out.

"Then what are we supposed to do? There has to be some way in there and we'll find it," Bridger assured her. Alex gave him a look that spoke volumes. She knew he would, she just didn't think he would find it in time.

"Captain, I don't think we have that kind of time. The longer we sit here, the bigger the chance he's going to notice us. We can't exactly back off and make plans, we won't even be able to see the place if we do," Brody told him. Weapons and tactical were his specialty and Bridger knew it.

"Do you have a better idea?" Nathan asked, hoping he did.

"I really don't know Captain. With the information we have there's no way for me to say with any certainty what will work without getting us killed." Brody confessed.

"If we could just get in there, I could disable the weapons system from inside. Then you could get as many men as you wanted in. Assuming we can stop Sanborn from initiating another self destruct," Lucas added. Alex didn't look like she was even paying attention, her gaze was still locked on the view screen, her bottom lip caught in her teeth. Lucas knew that expression. She only did it when she was in deep contemplation.

"That's the problem. We can't get in without him knowing, we can't get closer without getting killed and as soon as he knows we are here, he's going to shot first, ask questions later and destroy any evidence he was ever here," Bridger reasoned.

"You won't be able to find a single fault with his technical reasoning, but Sanborn is still human," Alex interjected suddenly.

"What do you mean by that?" Commander Ford asked.

Alex took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. "Bait him. He's a genius Commander, but he's also arrogant and completely self assured that not only what he is doing is right but that he is the only one who can. The ethics of intentions Commander. He'll stop at nothing to do what he thinks is best for humanity," she tried to explain. Bridger interceded before Ford could come up with a response, following her train of thought.

"Alright, it might work. But what do you suggest we bait him with?" he asked Alex looked absolutely terrified.

"Me. He thinks I'm dead. If he finds out I'm not I don't think he'll be able to resist the urge to return me to what he sees as my proper place." she told him. Her voice was quavering and she looked like she might turn and run at the first sudden movement. Lucas was down from his station and by her side as fast as he could scramble there.

"Alex. Are you insane? You want to go back there after what he did? What do you think he's going to do to you when he finds out the chip in your head is useless now? Invite you over for dinner?" he railed. Alex gave him a pleading look to understand.

"No, he'll probably kill me. But it would keep him busy long enough for you to blast your way in. He'll be too preoccupied with me to worry about initiating a self destruct. You were right Lucas. There are children down there, one of them might not be mine, but unless we do something they are going to grow up and suffer the same fate I did. The people he already has down there are already suffering it. What else can we do? We have to get in there some how." she argued. Lucas shook his head violently.

"No, no, there is no way I'm letting you go in there by yourself. If you go I'm going with you." Lucas insisted, he wasn't speaking from a logical point of view, he didn't care that he might be of some sort of aid in the mission, he just wasn't willing to let her go in there and never come back out again.

"No Lucas. You would just end up like I was. No." Alex argued back.

Bridger had stood there silently watching the exchange. Everyone on the bridge had. Some looked like they thought the idea had merit, others looked like they thought they were both insane.

"Wait a minute. Don't you think you should ask me first? I'm the Captain." he put in. Both of them looked at him waiting for him to say something else. Neither of them had a better idea.

"You both might have something Alex, but there has to be a better way of doing it. Just waving a white flag and handing you over isn't an option. Not only is it too much of a risk, you can't guarantee it would work the way you planned." he reasoned. Alex looked exasperated.

"Then what?" she spat in frustration. Lucas wrapped a reassuring and more than a little possessive arm around her shoulders.

"If he is as arrogant as you say he is. I don't think he could resist getting you back either. But he also wanted Lucas. When he took you both, he sent someone to do it for him. He didn't come himself. If he can just send henchman for you, neither of you will have a chance of getting out of there alive. You have to take that into account." Bridger said, his eyes weren't on either of them, his mind was busy turning over plans. "I think it's about time you two ran away together." He said after a moments pause.


	16. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Lucas sat in the Stinger's cockpit, Alex wedged in behind him and tried to drive it like he wasn't sure where they were going. The fact was he knew exactly where they were going, they were skirting the facility's perimeter and would soon be within its sensor range. The guise was, they had stolen the Stinger and run away together.

Their communications with _seaQuest_ had revealed they felt they had to do something important. They had deliberately left out what that something was. Sanborn would put two and two together as soon as he heard the transmissions and know Alex was not dead and they apparently thought they could take him on alone. The rest of the crew had enforced the ruse by moving further away from the facility and sending out easily monitored communications berating them both for stealing the Stinger and to come back immediately.

Bridger and Wendy had sounded very much the angry and worried parent figures, insisting they were making a foolish, childlike decision, begging them not to try and do anything rash without help. They had even deployed two launches to search for them, saying that he had done something to the navigational system to make it impossible to track them.

Sanborn was sure to overhear the communications, see the Stinger moving dangerously close and grab the chance while he had it. He and Alex had been injected with an isotope that could be tracked by the _seaQuest_, but no one else. Alex had modified one she often used to track certain genes in her work and Lucas had fed the specifications for tracking it into the boat's memory. Without the specifications the isotope was untraceable and would degrade in their systems within a few days. No matter where they were s_eaQuest_ would be able to find them.

Alex was so wound up she couldn't sit still. She kept drumming her fingers on the back of the pilot's seat. Lucas didn't exactly feel any better. He was the one who had to do the work. Somehow he had to disable the weapons systems in that facility once they got in. Alex was nothing more than a worm on a hook.

He couldn't deny he was scared. If he didn't find a way to get the seaQuest crew into the facility they would both end up right back where this whole thing started. Alex would most likely end up dead and he would spend rest of his life in a coma suffering the same torture she had. He could only hope Sanborn was as arrogant as Alex said he was and that if their plan failed Bridger could somehow save them and the others. This was their best chance to save those still in Sanborn's clutches, Lucas just prayed it worked.

He reached back and caught one of her hands in his own and squeezed it. "We'll make it. I swear to God we will," he reassured her. He hoped she couldn't tell he was lying through his teeth. She squeezed his hand in return and laughed nervously. "You're a bad liar but I hope you're right."

"We have to. I can't lose you again," Lucas confessed, his voice low, barely audible. He found running head on into what might be a suicide mission made his tongue looser. Alex didn't have time to respond as the Stinger's console beeped a warning, they had entered sensor range.

At first nothing happened, they drifted further into the facility's perimeter as if they had not been noticed. Lucas knew that wasn't possible they would have known they were there the moment they came into sensor range. They had to be reprogramming the drones or the gun turrets to disable them.

He was right, he only had time to hit the communication switch as they were hailed before drones descended on them, taking out the engines and sending them spiraling to the sea floor.

"Welcome back Ms. Northman and Mr. Wolenczak," cracked Sanborn's voice over the speakers.

**#***#**

The Stinger sank like a rock, crashing with a thud to the sea floor. It had been all Lucas could do to keep them from crashing with enough force to kill them on impact but he had done it. The landing had still left him feeling like some one had shoved him in a cement mixer and hit the on switch. He sucked in a deep breath and let it out all at once.

"You okay?" he asked Alex. She was clutching the pilot's seat so hard, her nails left half moons embedded there.

"Yeah. I'm alright. You?" she replied. Lucas nodded heavily.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," he told her as something connected with the mini sub. A grapnel had them by the tail and was reeling them in. Lucas could see that the line ran back to a shuttle that was hauling them along behind it, heading straight for a docking bay.

They both waited anxiously as the shuttle docked and the bay drained and pressurized. As soon as it was safe, the inner bay doors cycled open, a contingent of armed guards pouring through them, leveling their plasma guns at the Stinger. Dr. Sanborn came forward through them looking smug, angry and self righteous as ever. Neither of them moved until Sanborn motioned for them to get out. Slowly they both crawled out of the mini sub's cockpit, watching the guards and Sanborn warily. They took each others hand and tried to look as if they weren't afraid they were about to meet an untimely end. Despite the facade Alex was trying to put on she was white with fear and had inched as close to Lucas as she dared.

Sanborn stepped closer to them, clasping his hands behind his back and looked them both over with scrutiny. "You, Mr. Wolenczak, have caused me no end of problems. Do you know that?" he said sternly. Lucas kept his head up and locked his eyes with Sanborn's.

"Apparently not enough," he shot back.

"You are a fool. Though I am impressed you managed to keep this one alive. That took real ingenuity. It's a shame it was all for nothing," Sanborn hissed. Alex was too terrified to even speak, she hung onto Lucas' hand like a life line. Sanborn jerked his chin in her direction and two guards broke off to take her into custody. Lucas pulled her behind him and stared Sanborn down.

"No. Leave her alone," he said sharply. Alex had slipped an arm around his waist, her head buried in his back. He could feel her trembling.

"You aren't exactly in a position to negotiate Mr. Wolenczak," Sanborn laughed at him. Lucas set his jaw and dared him to try.

"Lucas, I have to. You know it's the only way," she whispered in his ear, her voice shook with every word.

"Alex. No," he pleaded softly, desperately. She released her hold on his hand and stepped out from behind him hesitantly. The guards grabbed her roughly by the arms as she cast a hopeless glance back at him. Lucas' face contorted into a mask of loss. She had just signed her own death warrant in the hope it would buy him time. He had reached for her without thinking, the muzzle of a plasma gun to his throat stopped him and all he could do is watch as the guards dragged Alex through the docking bay doors. She didn't look back again, her head was down as she walked away from him with leaden steps. It took all of his will power not to try pummeling his way through them. Sanborn had a smirk of self satisfaction plastered on his face. He would have liked to wipe it off for him.

"Take her to the preparation room," he ordered the retreating guards. "Have no worry Mr. Wolenczak. You'll see your friend again shortly," he added turning away and striding after them. "Bring him along. I think he should see this."

Lucas had no choice but to follow along. He submitted to being herded along and man handled without a word, trying to come up with a plan.

Their journey took them through winding corridors, Lucas spent the entire way committing them to memory, so he would know the way back out if they could make an escape. This facility was in stark contrast to the first. It had been white walls and steal. It had looked like a research facility, this one was nothing but steal. It gave the place an ominous feel, the lighting was muted and things looked like they had been established for far longer than the other installation. This must be Dr. Sanborn's main base of operations. Lucas' foot falls echoed hollow on the grate floor panels. They passed numerous rooms as they went, all tightly locked and sealed just as before.

Lucas was ushered into a brightly lit room after a number of guards, Sanborn and Alex. He swallowed a cold knot in his throat as he took in his surroundings. The middle of the room held what was obviously a surgical table, and not the kind used in hospitals. It looked like a cold steel "T" with metal cuffs mounted at the ends. Unnamed equipment that looked more like it should be used for interrogation than delicate surgery filled the rest of the space.

They were leading Alex to the table and forcing him toward the opposite wall. Alex trudged along like she had accepted her fate, her hair hiding her face. Lucas grudgingly tolerated it as he was shoved against the wall opposite the table and flanked by two guards who looked more than willing to fire at his head if he so much as breathed wrong. Sanborn's arrogant face appeared in his line of vision. Over his shoulder Lucas could see guards placing Alex in the table's restraints. She didn't even protest. Lucas' throat tightened in anguish.

"Now then. I am going to place Ms. Northman back into the network and then we will get to you. However, since you have presented me with so many problems I think you should watch and find out what is in store for you. Perhaps a dose of reality will show you some reason," the man lectured. Lucas fixed him with an icy glare.

"You will be very useful in gaining access to weapons systems, accessing huge corporations and governments computer systems. Oh yes you will be a perfect addition to my plan. Your friend is a smart girl. She knows her place in the scheme of things. You should learn yours," he explained as coldly as a machine.

"Go to hell," Lucas growled.

Alex suddenly screamed from the table and Lucas wrenched his head as far around Sanborn as he could, Sanborn perversely obliged him by moving to the side so he could see what was going on. He motioned most of the guards out as he did so and they exited without a word. Leaving Sanborn, the two guards, Lucas, Alex and a man who was apparently an assistant alone in the room with a dull clang of the door.

The assistant had forced a jack into Alex's head via the ports left in her scalp. It was much larger than the originals, and she writhed on the table as much as the cuffs allowed. Her back arched up off its surface. Her eyes were open but she didn't seem to see anything around her. Lucas lurched forward as if to go to her but the guards kept a tight hold on him. His stomach turned over and threatened to force its contents back the way they had come.

"Alex!" he called involuntarily. His heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vice, breath wouldn't come. He clenched his eyes shut against what he saw. He couldn't bare to watch her thrashing around like that. By the time he could force himself to open them Alex laid motionless on the table, her head lolled to one side. He was going to have to stand here and watch her die. He knew it and there was nothing he could do about it. They had failed and now he could only hope Bridger could save who ever else was trapped in Sanborn's web of horror.

Sanborn ignored him, making his way to a sink and rolling his sleeves up so he could prepare. His assistant moved to help him leaving Lucas to watch Alex lying there. He couldn't help the tears that welled in his eyes and spilled over onto his cheeks. "I'm sorry," he whispered into the void between them.


	17. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15 **

Sanborn and his assistant returned to the table and began to work, Alex laid still as stone. The assistant busied him self giving the equipment a final check while Sanborn worked on a small portable computer scanning her brain. It only took him a minute to realize the chip in Alex's head was useless. He rounded on Lucas enraged, he had crossed the distance from the table to him like he was pulled there by a magnet.

He wrapped his hands around Lucas' throat cutting off his air. The assistant kept right on working, drawing syringes of anesthesia and tried to act like Sanborn didn't have his hands around Lucas' throat trying to choke the life out of him but the guards were actually startled and moved away a few paces to avoid being innocent victims of Sanborn's rage. Lucas briefly wondered what the point of the anesthesia was since pain management was obviously the last thing on Sanborn's mind.

"What have you done? You've destroyed the chip! She's useless to me now!" Sanborn yelled at the top of his lungs. If he hadn't been trying to gasp for air Lucas would have told him he was glad. As it was all he could do was try to get some tiny amount of oxygen into his lungs. Sanborn was so busy raving at him he didn't notice he was pulling Lucas physically across the room and they were moving ever closer to the table. Lucas forced himself to focus. When Sanborn had driven them close enough he snatched one of the anesthesia syringes from the instrument tray and plunged it into Sanborn's neck. The man collapsed to the floor as his eyes rolled back into his head. Lucas gasped and his lungs flooded with the desperately needed air, his lungs burned with it.

No sooner had he managed to get oxygen into his lungs did the guards fire on him. He dove for cover behind a bank of equipment beside the table he couldn't name and looked for a way out. The assistant had scrambled across the room to avoid being caught in the cross fire. Lucas dared to break cover long enough to snag the tray of anesthesia syringes hoping they might prove to be of some use, sending the other instruments clattering off in the floor and triggering another barrage of gun fire.

Lucas kept his head down and tried to think of his next move. The guards apparently didn't notice what it was he had grabbed and descended on him, intent on pulling him from his hiding place. They got a rude awaking as he plunged syringes into both of their hands. They slumped like rag dolls to the floor and Lucas grabbed one of their plasma guns. He came up from cover with it aimed at the assistant, who looked utterly terrified.

The ruckus had alerted the guards outside something was going on. He could hear the sounds of pounding on the door and plasma fire. The door was locked from inside, it would take them a few minutes to get inside. He took what advantage of it he could.

"Move. Over there against the girders," he ordered the assistant. Keeping the gun trained on him he watched as the assistant promptly followed orders. Lucas didn't particularly care that the man was probably a pawn of Sanborn in his own right. Right now he only cared about getting himself and Alex out of here alive and accomplishing what they came to do.

Lucas lifted one of the guards cuffs and used them to secure the assistant to one of the girders. Safe for the moment he lowered the gun and rushed over to Alex. He released the cuffs that held her, freeing her from the restraints and lifted her head. She didn't make a sound but she was still breathing.

"Come on sweetheart. Please. Wake up," he begged.

Carefully and as gently as he could he removed the jack from her head. She groaned deeply in pain, instinctively trying to curl into her self. He dropped the jack, his fingers came away bloody but the wound left by the jack seemed to be clotting. She opened her eyes trying to focus, Lucas could hear the door sizzle and whine. The guards would be through it any minute. He had to do something and fast.

"Alex, listen to me we have to get out of here. Can you run?" he asked, searching her face. She took a moment to answer as she sat up with his help.

"Yeah, Yeah I think so," she rasped.

"Okay, come on. I'm going to try and get us out of here," he said draping her arm over his shoulders and helping her to her feet. She almost sent them both toppling, when her legs briefly refused to support her but Lucas kept them both upright. He maneuvered his way toward the door, waiting. He had an idea that might work. If he was lucky.

The guards blasted the door free of its hinges and came barreling in guns blazing and Lucas took the only chance he could see. He sprang for the hole where the door had been, barreling through the guards and nearly dragging Alex with him as he hauled them both out into the hall way. They raced away from Sanborn and the guards, Alex panting laboriously along side him, ducking gun fire as they ran.

He dragged her into the first room they came to, slamming the automatic controls behind them and engaging the lock. He could hear the guards coming. Lucas looked around for something to smash the controls and keep them out as long as possible.

Finding nothing he drew his filched plasma gun and fired on it instead. Sparks flew as the panel melted and fried. That would buy them some time at least.

Safe for the moment he lowered Alex to the floor and leaned against the wall. They both stayed there a while in silent exhaustion before either could gather the energy or wits to speak.

"Now what?" Alex asked plaintively, drawing her knees up and resting her arms and head on them. Lucas shoved his hands into his hair and thought.

"He's unconscious right now but I don't know how long it will last. We've got to shut him out of the system, before he can decide to start another self destruct, we've got to shut him out of the main frame altogether or he might decide that all the others are better off dead and unable to ever bring evidence against him. Get the weapons offline so seaQuest can get in range. Then we've got to contact _seaQuest. _In that order," Lucas told her. Now that they weren't under immediate threat of death, he knew what to do and how to do it. Alex nodded weakly and got to her feet. She wavered like she was drunk, one hand going to her head briefly. Lucas reached out and steadied her.

"Are you sure you are okay?" he asked worriedly. She looked up at him and mustered a wain smile. "Yeah. I'll be fine," came her reply. Lucas wasn't so sure he believed her but she managed to get her self steadied and looked like she might be able to manage alright.

"How long do you think a syringe of that anesthesia will keep Sanborn out?" he asked. She considered it a moment thinking.

"Thirty maybe forty five minutes." she answered.

"Then we better get started." he ascertained and together they rounded the corner into what should have been the main part of the room.

**#**#**

What they walked into wasn't a room at all. It was the size of a concert hall. Dead center of the room was a huge dark blue glass column. It was so large it could easily have housed another room within it. It was too opaque to see through and pinkish energy played over its surface.

Computers of the same kind he had seen at the resort facility lined the walls, data and images flickering over their surfaces. They both stood gaping at the huge electrified column. The energy playing on it's surface was reminiscent of the plasma globes once popular in the 80s.

"What is that?" Alex asked warily not taking her eyes off it. Lucas shook his head his eyes locked on it as well."I don't know. It looks like an energy supply of some kind," he answered. He had never seen anything like it. It had an odd sort of beauty to it with the pinks, blues and violets playing over its surface.

"For what?" Alex asked again. There was a low hum coming from it Lucas now realized. At first he hadn't payed any attention to the noise, disregarding it as routine. "I have no idea," he admitted.

"You try to figure it out. I have to get control of the computer system," he said tearing himself away and moving to one of the consoles. Alex cast a dumbfounded glance back at him as he set to work.

"How am I supposed to do that?" she asked incredulous.

"The console right there," he said indicating a console on the curve behind him just out of her line of vision. She came around to it and took one long appraising look at it before protesting. "I'm a biomedical engineer not a computer hacker Lucas!"

He couldn't help but laugh. "What? Did you forget everything I taught you in college? You can't have only picked up the math," he chided affectionately turning to look at her. She shot him a look for his trouble.

"Well no. But that's not a normal computer!" she protested again pointing at it for emphasis.

"Just give it a shot. Pretend its a desk you can pull things onto and throw things off of at will," he suggested. She rolled her eyes in answer.

"You're impossible." she grumbled. Her balance wavered momentarily and she clutched her head again wincing. He almost left what he was doing to make sure she didn't loose it all together and fall.

"I'm fine!" she insisted again and without another word turned to the console and began trying to work out how to use it. He watched her a moment more but she seemed to be holding her own so he turned back to his own work. He was more than concerned but there was nothing he could do about it right now.

They worked that way for at least half an hour before they began hearing the first sounds of forced entry. Lucas was just on the threshold of gaining complete control of the computer system. Then he would be able to control anything in the facility he wanted from their location. They could both hear the sound of a plasma cutter being used.

"How long do you think that door is going to hold?" Alex asked apprehensive, stopping her so far, worthless efforts with the column's console to gaze at the door worriedly.

"As thick as that is at least another thirty minutes, maybe an hour." he answered, casting a speculative glance at it himself. Exchanging glances they went back to work without a word, time weighing on them both like a physical object.

It took Lucas another fifteen minutes to gain control over the computer system. He wasted no time in hunting down and disabling the facilities self destruct mechanisms. Now even if Sanborn did come too, he wouldn't be able to blow the place to kingdom come.

Alex continued to work more or less silently. She was apparently getting no where fast because every so often Lucas would hear her mutter a string of curses under her breath and try again. One or twice she had hissed in pain or whispered ouch unconsciously but every time he turned to be sure she was alright she would have her head buried in the computer console again.

By now they could see occasional plasma fire seeping through one edge of the door. They didn't have much time before the guards would be through and Sanborn if he was conscious by the time they did.

Another ten minutes and Lucas had disabled the weapons system. Sanborn couldn't do anything outside this room. He would have to get in to do anything with the computer systems. Lucas had made sure of it. Now it was just a matter of contacting Captain Bridger and shutting him down once and for all. The guards had made it through the lower and upper sides of the door, they only had one left to go. Time was running out.

Lucas pulled up a schematic of the facility and tried to get an accurate location of where they were and the lay out of the place so he could relay as much information to the Captain in as short a period of time as possible. When he got it up he became slightly confused.

"How's it going over there?" Alex called back to him as a beep issued from the console she was working on. Lucas didn't bother to turn to answer her, he was still trying to make heads or tails of what he was looking at.

"I've got Sanborn locked out of the system, I'm in control of it now. He can't do anything without getting in this room first and the weapons system is down. Just have to contact Captain Bridger now. How about you?" he rattled off absently, He was staring a hole in the console by now.

"Well, not much. But I think I found the door to this column. It's a room. See?" she replied,touching the door control on the console and sounding mildly pleased with her progress. Lucas was still focused on the console in front of him.

"That's impossible. This schematic says all of the other patients should be in here with us. They should be right behind..." Lucas added half a beat after her, he never finished his sentence.

The column door slid open with a whoosh and Lucas turned away from the console and up beside Alex. They both inched forward toward the open door and peered in. What they saw left them both completely astounded and horrified.

"Oh my God." they both breathed in unison.


	18. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

For a long moment all either of them could do was gape. What they had taken to be an empty column housed at least two dozen of Sanborn's victims or what was left of them. Not a human body remained within the column instead vats hung suspended on a cylindrical metal frame work in the center of the room. In each of the vats floated a human brain and spinal column.

From each of the brains ran thousands of tiny tubes filled with blue fluid, replacing what would have been blood. They all flowed back into a central column held within the metal frame work. The central column contained the same blue fluid. Twining up from the outside of it ran coolant tubes as thick as a man filled with red liquid nitrogen. Electrical nodes and wires ran from the disembodied brains back to the central column and it was topped by what might be considered something that was both brain and computer.

"What is this?" Lucas asked half in awe and half revulsion. Alex was holding onto the frame of the door like it was a life preserver. "We're too late," she said softly. Lucas took her by the shoulders, he almost shook her in disbelief.

"What do you mean we're too late? Alex, this is your area not mine. What is it?" he asked frantically. She wasn't even looking at him she was looking past him to the monstrosity beyond, shaking her head is despair.

"He's killed them. Lucas, that's a synthetic brain. He's wired them all into a synthetic brain. Scientist have been trying to replicate the human brain for years. I don't know how but he's done it. He doesn't need to keep their bodies alive anymore, the only thing left is their brains. He's created a hive mind. You have no idea the power he will be able to wield with that thing," she stammered. Lucas looked back at the horrific mechanism as what she meant hit him.

"He's going to use it to control the world's population. Force them to stop anything he considers a crime." he voiced his eyes going wide, chill bumps rose on his skin and he could feel his hair standing on end.

"Yes and with that many psychics in there he can do it. There is always one psychic to every scientist, they were supposed to work in pairs. Some how he's found a way to separate the consciousness from the body and keep it in the brain. But there's no way to put them back Lucas. The technology doesn't exist!" she rambled.

Lucas released his hold on her, turning in a frantic circle. The blue and red fluid reminded him of something. He moved closer looking and discovered why. He went stark white and stepped away from the cylinder like it was a viper.

"That's blue moon and liquid nitrogen. Clay Marshall used it to modify himself, it replaced his blood. If those two come into contact it will become the densest liquid energy known to man. We're sitting on top of a time bomb," Lucas said his voice full of fear and dread. He nearly dove at the nearest computer console , the inner wall of the column was lined with them. Alex stood transfixed by what she saw.

He was keying up the communications system so fast he thought the interface might burst into flames. He hit the connect button and waited impatiently for it to uplink. Bridger's face popped up in front of him without so much as a delay. One look at him told Lucas the expression on his own face had the Captain more than a little worried.

"Lucas..." Nathan began but Lucas cut him off.

"Captain get over here now. The weapons system is shut down you can get in free and clear. But we can't save them. We have bigger problems. He's taken their brains out of their bodies, made some sort of hive mind out of them. Captain, he can use them to control the world population. No one will have free will," he spat out as fast as his vocal cords would allow. Bridger was growing steadily whiter with each word.

"Can you shut it down?" he asked dead serious. Lucas shook his head.

"I don't know Captain. I don't even know if it's been initiated yet. This isn't something I'm used to working with. Alex is the biomedical engineer not me," he confessed.

"Can she?" Bridger replied his voice growing sharper with every second.

"I don't know. This may be beyond her expertise too. Captain there's more. He's powering it with syntium and cooling it with liquid nitrogen. We're sitting on a time bomb. If they come in contact each other, it's not only going to kill us and blow this station into oblivion it's going to reactivate the volcano this place is standing on," he explain. He hadn't thought the Captain could look any whiter. He was wrong.

"Lucas, you and Alex have got to make sure Sanborn can't initialize that thing. We're on our way. Just be careful," he said, his face had gone so white someone might have painted him that color.

Lucas didn't get a chance to reply, the door finally gave way and the guards poured in like angry ants with Sanborn in the lead. Alex turned in time to see them baring down on them and they both tried for the column door but Sanborn was faster. He hit something on the outside console and the column door slid closed before they could reach it. Lucas tried to over ride it but couldn't, something in the cylinder whined and the column's wall became translucent, Only the electricity playing over its surface was still visible. Sanborn stood outside it smiling maniacally.

"I already told you, you can't stop me." Sanborn crackled over the communications system. He fingered the console and the inside of the cylinder lit up like a Christmas tree. Sliding his hand up the panel the whole thing seemed to come alive. He was initiating start up on the system and they were locked inside. Lucas slammed his fist on the column wall.

"You're jeopardizing all our lives!" he yelled at him. Sanborn disregarded him as he worked on the console.

"You have to stop this! Is this justice? Is this moral? The ethics of intentions Sanborn. Is that it? Anything is justified as long as you think the end is for the good of man kind?" Alex added, her voice rising until she was almost screaming. Sanborn didn't bother to look up.

"It doesn't matter. The world will be free of war and crime. Maybe even natural disaster. Any thing is worth that. Anything!" he yelled and the cylinder roared with energy. The roar should have leveled out as the capacitor diverted energy and kept the flow steady but it wasn't. The roar was getting louder. Something had gone wrong, the machine's reactor was over loading.

The console out side exploded in a shower of glass and electronic parts. Sanborn flew back, propelled by the force of the blast. His limp form slammed to the ground in a smoldering heap. There was no doubt the blast had killed him, his head was burnt to a crisp, where eyes had once been there were only charred sockets. The floor beneath them was beginning to shake as the overload spread to the auxiliary systems.

Alex leapt into action taking over one of the computer consoles trying to find a way to stop the overload. She squeezed her eyes shut briefly and swayed. Her knees tried to give way and Lucas caught her just in time.

"Alex! Are you alright?" he asked panicked. She moaned in pain and held her head in her hands. It was then that he noticed the blood seeping into the hair at the back of her head. The jack had done more damage than either of them thought. She got her balance back and pulled away from him, launching back into the computer. "I'm fine it's just a headache." she reasoned feebly as she tried to stop the system somehow.

"You aren't fine. Alex, you're bleeding, something is wrong! That jack has ruptured something!" he insisted. What could he do but pray the _seaQuest_ got here in time and had a better solution than they did? She ignored him and kept working. Lucas could do nothing, he had no idea how to operate a system that was as much biological as it was computer. Now it was up to her, if she could do it. She growled in frustration and hit the console as hard as she could.

"Shut down the main power core." he suggested, the cylinder was roaring so loud now they had to pitch their voices over the ear splitting sound. Alex shook her head.

"I tried! I can't, Sanborn over rode the internal controls, it can't be done from in here!" she yelled back. As if to emphasize the point several of the computer banks on the opposite side of the column blew like pyrotechnics. Lucas and Alex both jumped back to avoid the sparks and flames issuing from them. Alex tried to catch her self on the wall, but something gave in that instant and she buckled, sliding down it instead. Lucas fell to his knees beside her, scooping her up into his arms. She was too weak to try and get up and her breath was coming in jagged rasps.

"Alex? Alex? Can you hear me?" he pleaded frantically. She managed to open her eyes and gaze up at him, the light was going out of them. Blood was seeping faster from the wound in her head, his sleeve was slowly becoming saturated with it.

"I hear you Lucas." she whispered, he could barely hear her over the roar of the cylinder. He pulled her into his lap, cradling her like a child. He knew she was dying.

"You're going to be okay just hold on. Don't you leave me!" he demanded desperately, one hand caressing her cheek. She smiled at him weakly, her frame seizing momentarily in pain.

"I don't think I have a choice this time." she breathed. He could feel her heart beat against his chest. It came in erratic thumps, they were growing increasingly farther apart. Something else in the column blew but he didn't bother to see what.

He didn't care, nothing but her existed now. He could feel tears welling in his eyes and some of them escaped their confines and fell softly. He lowered his head to hers and kissed her long and delicately knowing it would be the last. He pulled away reluctantly and looked deep into her eyes. He said the only thing he could, the one thing he hadn't before and should have. Before now he had been too afraid. Now it was the only thought in his head.

"I love you." he whispered into her ear. She shivered, somehow she managed to raise one hand and caress his cheek. He caught it holding it there, savoring that moment while he could. A vibrant smile bloomed on her lips.

"I know. I always have." she whispered back as she went limp and the last breath slid from her body. All the light slipped from her eyes and he pulled her to his chest rocking her back and forth, sobs racking him so hard he didn't think he could ever stop.

"Oh God. No, no, no. no." The last thing he knew something within the facility shook violently and blew with a spectacular blast. Then there was darkness.


	19. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Lucas came around slowly. At first he refused to open his eyes certain that some how he was hallucinating. He could hear voices in the background that sounded like Captain Bridger and Dr. Smith. The sounds of the medical bay beeped and whirred around him. He didn't care. The last thing he could remember he had been holding Alex's dead body in his arms and sobbing. It slammed home again like a knife to the heart. He had lost her again and this time there would be no miraculous reprieve. He choked as grief constricted his throat. He felt a hand on his arm and forced his eyes open. Captain Bridger's face looked down at him smiling.

"Hey kiddo. How are you feeling? You gave us a pretty good scare there. It's a good thing Alex came up with the idea for those isotopes, they lead us straight to you." he greeted him. The mention of her name made him wince and his heart seize with the loss.

"Alex." Lucas rasped mournfully. Bridger squeezed his arm reassuringly and smiled more. How could he smile about it? Lucas felt like there was a hole where his heart had been.

"Is going to be fine." Nathan put in before Lucas could break into the tears that threatened to start all over again. Lucas felt his skin prickle in shock. He tried to sit up off the bed, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"What? I held her while she died..." he spat in disbelief, his heart skipped a beat. Nathan gently kept him from scrambling up, pressing him back down on the bed.

"She's right there. You just stay where you are. You took a pretty good blow to the head before we could get you both out. If we hadn't gotten there when we did she would be dead." Nathan insisted, pointing to a bed a few feet from his own. Lucas looked where Bridger was pointing.

Just as the Captain had said, Alex laid sleeping peacefully. Though she was covered in minor scrapes and bruises that she hadn't had before, all of which had been meticulously tended to. Lucas relaxed back into the bed and relieved laughter silently shook him. Tears still threatened to spill but now they were from relief. Some how Captain Bridger had saved them both.

"I thought the station blew, I thought we were both dead." Lucas confessed, returning his gaze to the Captain. Bridger was smiling down at him fatherly. He shook his head in answer.

"No, what you heard was Brody blowing the door open. Unfortunately it caused some of the equipment inside to come down on you two." Nathan explained.

"What about the overload? The syntium?" Lucas asked worriedly. Nathan stopped him from sending himself into a frenzy over it.

"Brody has a team over there now disassembling it. Henderson managed to disable the main power core once we could get inside. It never had a chance to blow." he assured him. Lucas let out a long sigh of released tension. At least the place hadn't gone off like a fourth of July fire cracker.

"All those people. The kids." he added. The facility might not have blown but Sanborn had still managed to kill at least two dozen people.

"Yes, I'm afraid you were right. We were too late to save the other scientists and psychics Sanborn butchered. But the children are fine. We got everyone else out. We've had to call in reinforcements just to handle all the people we've taken into custody." Nathan reasoned. Lucas felt momentarily sick at the thought of all those lives lost that he and Alex could do nothing about.

"Sometimes you can't save them all Lucas. You and Alex saved a lot of lives. You did all you could." Nathan told him sagely. Lucas nodded in reluctant acceptance.

"Now you should rest. I can't have my chief computer analyst spending all his time in the medical bay." Bridger joked. Lucas smiled despite himself as the Captain gave his shoulder a final pat and left him to rest.

**#**#**

It took Lucas another two days to be released from the medical bay. He had suffered nothing more than a good thrashing and a concussion the size of New York. When he had finally gotten a look at him self, he found he was covered in the same scraps and bruises Alex was. They both looked like hell.

Alex had to remain several days longer, during the later half of which she had spent her days loudly proclaiming that she was fine and when could she get out of this horribly boring medical bay? The jack had caused an aneurism, the port in its own way had saved her life. The opening it provided had prevented the pressure in her head from building and killing her for some time before she had actually collapsed.

Captain Bridger had declared shore leave since the Kermadec Trench wasn't far from Fiji and most of them had nothing to do while the deconstruction of the station was completed and people were sorted out. Lucas and Alex were taking full advantage of it and were having a , somewhat quiet, meal at a little restaurant on the beach. Alex poked her food again with her fork. Since Sanborn's death and the resolution of his scheme she had returned to her old self with a vengeance. Bringing it all to a close had resulted in more closure for her than anything else had.

"This looks about as much like shrimp scampi as a bowl of pulverized flat worms." She mused, pushing the plates contents around and eying them warily. Lucas grinned and popped another piece of sushi in his mouth.

"That's what you get for taking Tony's advice on meal choices." he observed. She gave him a reproachful look.

"Remind me never to do it again." she told him with a chuckle. Her statement was punctuated but laughter from a nearby table. Tony was looking very pleased with himself. Somehow he had managed to rope Henderson, O'Neill, Commander Ford and Brody into a game of poker. Apparently he was winning.

"How is that plasma burn treatment with Dr. Smith coming?" he asked casually. Neither of them had really talked about what had happened since they had made it out alive. He wasn't sure either of them wanted to.

"Very well actually. She doesn't need me anymore. We figured out a way to protect the burns with a synthetic skin compound. It will also make healing take half the time it normally would." she answered brightly. Lucas smiled and nodded.

"Great. That will come in handy for a lot of people I'm sure." he told her. Amicable silence descended on them as they took in all that was around them.

Captain Bridger was down at the shore playing catch with Darwin with Wendy playing referee. Ortiz and a number of other crew members were engaged in a volley ball game not far away. The sun shone down on them with full force, not a shadow could be seen. The water sparkled in the light like a thousand diamonds had been spilled on its surface and a gentle breeze played through the palm trees. It was as idyllic a day as one could hope for. Both of them ditched their meal in favor of a walk down the beach hand in hand.

"We'll be going back to New Cape Quest when we're done here. I guess we'll have to figure out what to do with bunk arrangements then. Tony is going to love it if he gets his own quarters." Lucas said breaking the silence, he was looking forward to spending a great deal more time with Alex. Finally saying he loved her had freed him of any reservations he had had. It had taken losing her twice to make him see reason but now he wouldn't have changed it for the world. Alex looked at him apprehensively.

"Lucas about that." she began.

"Oh. Did you want to keep separate quarters? It's fine if you do." he insisted, running over her words. She shook her head.

"It's not that. Lucas, I can't stay." she said softly. Lucas felt like someone had just kicked him.

"What? Why not? You could join the science team. I know Captain Bridger would love to have you on board." Lucas reasoned rapidly. Alex sighed and stopped walking.

"Yes I could and maybe one day I will. I'm sure Captain Bridger would be willing to have me as part of the crew. But I spent six years in a coma, and the last few weeks trying to come to terms with what happened and thwart Sanborn. _SeaQuest_ is great and I would love to stay, but I have to get my life back. I have to go out there and live in the real world for a while. I need that." she explained, searching his face for acceptance. Lucas dropped his gaze to the sand for a moment.

"I understand. You're right. It's not fair of me to keep you here if it's not what you want." Lucas answered dismally. This had not been how he wanted things to go.

"I do want it. I just need to get my life back first Lucas. That's all." she pleaded. Lucas brushed a tendril of gold hair out of her eyes gently.

"I know." he said smiling wanly.

"Will you wait for me?" she asked, a tinge of worry in her voice.

"Of course I will. I have no intention of letting you get away now not after all I went through to get you back. But you will come back to the _seaQuest_ one day? Soon?" he asked hopefully. She smiled widely.

"You bet your life on it!" she declared. He smiled back and pulled her into his arms.

"I love you Alex." he said.

"I love you too Lucas." she answered. With that he drew her lips to his and kissed her with all the passion he could convey in one kiss. Around them the crew of the _seaQuest_ was watching and cheering.


End file.
